The answers you get depend on the questions you ask

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesrbowe/

This is an old, old way of looking at things.

I never understood the Huna method of teaching - that the kahuna wouldn't tell the student an answer until they asked a question. Now, the kahuna might put the student into a learning situation or offer them a gift which could prompt questions - but that's a little different.

Not much, though.

In all cases, it was the student's responsibility to originate and pose the question based on their own background and understanding.

This is the way life itself works - how the Universe that surrounds us responds. 

If you are constantly seeking to learn, to find out - then all sorts of answers are available to you. And on many, many levels.

The story of Dr. Gates, which Napoleon Hill mentions in his Think and Grow Rich, is classic:

Dr. Gates had a room which could be made totally dark, with no external distractions. In that room he would sit with a pad of paper and his hand on the light switch, concentrating on the details of the Problem he was working to solve. He would sit there and concentrate until inspiration would hit - and then write down everything he was getting as fast as he could. 

This technique often brought about new approaches to working in materials and in theories of application - so much so that he was known for his body of patents. Needless to say, he was in great demand as a consultant.

Your own life goes this route, doesn't it? When you devote your energies to finding out something, only then do you get your answer. Sure, sometimes you have to relax and take your mind "off" of something in order to suddenly get an inspiration - and perhaps this is because you aren't living a relaxed life all the time...

But try this. Figure out what you really want and study all the details that you know about that thing or job or person you want to bring into your life. Really concentrate on every facet of that. Do it in a relazed frame of mind - like an easy chair in a room where you can be undisturbed - or at your desk with the phone on mute and the computer screen turned off.

See what comes into your mind as you do. Write all this down when you get that hint, that flash - and see what you have when you finish writing everything out.

Could be we just opened a door to your own fortunes, the ones that have been eluding you for some time...

Good Hunting! 

The funny philosophy of happiness - it was exactly where you needed to look for it all the time

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jphilipson/)

Fascinated with how things are coming together recently.

Things you are looking for truly and always show up exactly where you needed to look for them.

This image is one. Of course, it's a search on Flickr for pictures of "happiness" - and I get this fascinating image which the center of attention is on that beautiful glowing tree. But what you don't particularly notice right off is that there are several other trees n this photo. And you find them when you look for them. That's right where they are - where you needed to look.

Of course, that's a simple explanation.

But let's go over supposedly immutable laws. Like the Bell Curve - states that any distribution of data has about 3% actually making an incredible success of themselves and somewhere around 95 % just muddling along. (With 3-5% being criminals who commit most of our crimes, and around 10-15% being "poor" that the media love to trumpet about.)

If you check around, this bell curve shows up just about everywhere.

But you and I know that the rich are there because they changed their minds. Another way to look at this is that they started looking where they needed to look in order to find what they wanted.

Of course, that phrase says "wanted" comes before "look".

My own example in this is somehow following this inspired idea to get a refund back from a company I was scammed by. Sure, I can make it work to pay off these thousands of dollars that I really got nothing out of. But that idea of "inspired" was a new thought. I was born a Scorpio and so have worked with this heritage for a long time. It means that I'm wired to be incredibly dedicated to whatever or whoever I attach to - it also has the flip side of bringing new meaning to "hell hath no fury" when scorned.

So when I get this nagging idea to get a refund by using all the tools I already have at my disposal, I then get a bit leary about it. But testing my intuition, the thought came back, "Go ahead, it will be okay - everything will turn out fine."

Yesterday, I got my first live phone call from that company - and I hadn't actually sent them any email directly for probably months. Now the guy was pretty nice about his stonewalling. And we left the conversation on more or less even terms. Afterwards, even three blog-posts later, I was still a bit ticked off and unsettled.

Sleeping on it gave new answers to that problem. And of course, I was looking in all the wrong places for my solution.

I've said many times that your purpose is what makes you happiest. And have quoted Earl Nightingale in his "Strangest Secret", who says that what you are looking for as a chronic attitude is one of "calm, cheerful expectancy."

The kicker in this is that you can use this feeling as an indicator of what you are doing in life. If you feel this way, then everything is going along fine. If you are intense, upset, or otherwise off-beam and away from this attitude, then you are looking in the wrong place.

All this work in refunds from Internet scammers can lead you through some of the most intense negative emotions that exist. (Follow that link for the graphic - it's a hoot.)

That's the point to living - having fun at things. Sure, there is Justice and there is necessary discipline to keep things on an even keel. Those who follow the route of evil simply have to have more structure installed in their lives. Training a pet is one of these. (I've gotten my dogs to get along with my cattle and vice-versa, as long as I'm right there near both of them.)

Again, that result is because I'm looking where I need to. If you want natural antagonists getting along with each other, then you have to look for that as a result. Figuring that they are always going to be this way or that way - of course gets that result.

That's why I love working on my farm. My dad worked his cattle like most people and so had to build up high fences to keep them from jumping out. I've studied books on this and found out that if you simply work slowly (and hand feed them a lot), the cattle will go just about anywhere you want them to - calmly, quietly, with little fuss. And when I get around to it, I've got a heckuva lot of building materials I can re-use somewhere else...

Back to this telemarketer scam refund business. To make short of it (so you don't have to get an education in internet marketing here), there are marketing keywords which I haven't used, but are enlightening. One of these is "funny things to say to telemarketers". This has far more people looking for it with a lot less competition than keywords like "stop telemarketers" or "Internet scams".

And that would get me back to battery, wouldn't it. Make fun of the silly people who rip others off for greed. Too simple.

Where's my refund? It's right where I needed to look for it all the time. Use the "old" tools I've learned from these old books I talk about all the time. Atkinson, Napoleon Hill, Haanel - right up to more modern authors like Nightingale and even "The Secret" and Jose Silva. You just calm down, relax, think the thought of what you most want - and release it for the Universe to manifest.

Wherever you need to look, it will show up there.

Too simple.

But that's the way this Universe is actually set up. That Bell Curve above just shows how many people aren't looking where they need to - if they did, they'd find it a very simple existence.

(And, not so oddly, this gives me a whole new approach to Internet Marketing...)

Cheers.

The haves and have-nots - how two worlds live together simultaneously

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/visulogik/)

There are two worlds living together simultaneously,
but only one knows the other exists.

These are not the worlds of have and have-not, but probably they align pretty well that way. Some of those who know about the two worlds simply wish to live in relative obscurity rather than living in fantastic opulence - while the other world around them burns.

Some know the universe can be easily changed, and the rest figure that they have to go along with what's presented.

Nightingale, Hill, Holmes, Haanel, Troward, Carnegie, Emerson, Eddy - all these authors and more found out that there was a completely separate world right at their finger-tips. All they had to do was start thinking different. You'll find in most of these writers above that they did exhaustive/exhausting research to determine what was actually going on in the world around them.

And if you look up the thinkers who made incredible amounts of money through these methods, you'll see they have become philanthropists the rest of their lives - Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford, Gates, plus many, many others.

So we have our Matrix red pill/blue pill choice.

Start by turning off your TV and start thinking for yourself.

Your future can be whatever you have always dreamed it as - and make those dreams become real and actual in the world around you.

But you have to start thinking for yourself.

Seeing your future by looking at Now - marketing meets the metaphysical

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevalenx/)

When you look, you see.

But what you're looking for makes all the difference.

Ran into an interesting datum yesterday - actually, I was told about it from one of my dreams (you know, when you wake up from a nap with an inspired thought... happens to most all of us.)

There's this datum which is repeated in many, many places on the Internet - that 95 percent of all your thoughts and actions are guided by the subconscious.

Now this runs right into what I've been studying with Cialdini's "Influence".

The interesting part is that you can turn this completely around and start influencing the influencer. While I don't have time to go into the technical details of it, just listen to this train of thought:

• All knowledge is recorded and available in the mind.
• All minds are linked.
• Prayer/Meditation can place a definite thought in this Universal mind - and so communicate across any distance instantaneously (proved by the results of many, many studies - and most people believe it, anyway - through personal experience).
• By seeking out the common ideas people have, you can then help them find their own bliss and align this to their own lives.
• People who seek violent ends are an extreme minority and are shunned - they are self- as well as other-destructive.
• The vast bulk of humankind is interested in prosperity and peace in the world around them.
• It would only take about 3 percent of humanity to actually move the bulk over to a new state - as happens daily (it's just not coordinated).
• Getting 3 percent of this planet enlightened and praying/meditating daily for world peace would move the world almost permanently into that state.

Going to have to leave this as a simple, enigmatic note at this point. The basics of it, and proving the rationale behind it, can all be found on the 'Net. But if you want to read how this is possible, check out Hill's "'Law of Success", Collier's "Secret of the Ages", Holmes' "Science of Mind", Haanel's "Master Key System", and study up on Larson and Fillmore.

[Got to run - come back to this later with links.]

5 Keys to Success In Anything You Really Want

Here's 5 Success Keys to Getting Anything You Really Want

1. Seek the Silence daily.
2. Find your vision.
3. Plan your work.
4. Work your plan.
5. Build your support group.

I've studied thousands of self help books, recordings, lectures, transcripts, articles, blog posts, you name it - over the half century I've been on this planet. And they really only boil down to five key points anyone can use to improve their lives. Use these and you'll be able to achieve or acquire or accomplish anything. Anything.

These are nothing new. And you've heard them all before in one manner or another.

But this time: Write them down and put them on the wall in front of you - or on your computer monitor on a tabbie - or the ceiling above your bed (if that's where you do your best thinking). Memorize these and tell several people about them. Blog about them, Twitter them, Do a podcast or a video or stumble them. But get this word out.

Because they work. They always have, they always will. And if you want a better life, if you want someone around you to have a better existence or solve some problem, write out these five keys for them and tell them just what I told you.

I didn't invent these. They are as old as the hills - or older. But we can use them right now, today. And that's the point of writing this now.

1. Seek the Silence daily.

Some call it prayer, others meditation, others yet - just a quiet time, like a long walk in the woods or sitting in a favorite chair looking out on a scenic view. The point is to find a few points daily where you can sit in a quiet space, relax, and let your thoughts simply go. Get some peace.

As you get more peace into your life, you'll be able to work easier and more efficiently. You'll lead a calm, comfortable life. And good things will happen to you all the time.

Plus, the calm, the peace expands around you. You'll be helping people quit worrying and enjoy their lives more - all because you enjoy yours.

2. Find your vision.

Now, find out what you really like to do, what you really want to get into your life, what you would rather be doing if you didn't have to do anything else for a living. What you want to wear, how you want to look, how you want to feel.

Haanel, Wattles, Bristol, Peale, Shakespeare, Plato - the list is long. They all said this. Jesus and other religious phil0sophers, prophets, and sages all covered this.

Get a quiet time and figure out what it is you really want. Hill and Nightingale say to write this down on two little cards. Write it like it's already done - not, "I want a ....", but "I have a ...." One card goes on your nightstand by the bed. The other goes with you to work. Review this three times a day, preferably at the same time. Get the feeling of this being already there - how great, how satisfied, how grateful you feel for this showing up, being brought to you.

Thats' your next step. Take your time and work it out. You probably already have an idea. Go for it.

Then review it at least three times a day and every chance you get in between. The more you chew over your vision in your mind, the more details start to appear - and the more real it becomes. You'll get inspiration and intuitive insight on how to make it happen faster as you do.

2. Plan your work.

The trick in this is to plan out what you have to do in logical sequence - what has to happen first before something else can. Just lay out your ToDo list all in sequence. Simple steps - but only those things that you can do. And only write down the really vital things. It's not a grocery list or a wish list. It's a sequential series of steps you need to do to get the next part of your vision to actually occur around you.

You know what these steps are. Just write them down so you can work on them and get them done.

Nothing gets done in this universe without some sort of action taking place. Dreams remain just daydreams until you act on them.

So write them down so you can.

3. Work your plan.

Now, how you get these done is important.

You get them done one at a time. Period. Work on one thing and get it done. Then the next. And then the next after that and so on.

All multi-tasking is over-hyped. Computers only "multi-task" by working on one thing at a time for a short period of time each, and in rotation - and they slow down and crash when asked to work on too many things at once.

Sure, if you're waiting on something to finish, you can do something to fill in - but drop that and get back to finish what you started originally as soon as you can. Once that's done, then finish the next thing you started. Concentrate on getting what you started done - in the order you started it. And preferably, you can organize your life so that you don't have to start more than one thing at a time.

Yes, there is true multi-tasking. Put one computer doing one thing and another computer doing the second thing. In business, this is called hiring more people. Two people can do two things at once - one works on one thing, the other works on the other thing.

Just the way this universe is laid out. Penalties for routinely trying to "multi-task?" Nervous breakdowns - a "crash". Computers are modeled after human thought, after all. They can only "think" as good as we can. Take the hint. Work your own list from the top down. Only.

If you don't get it all done that day? Put it in your pocket and bring it back to work the next day. When you do get it all done, lay out the next steps you need to do. And then work this list from the top down. Keep the same list and check it off. Don't re-write it every day. Just do it, complete it. There's always more paper ready when you start your next list.

Another point - how do you go at this? Calmly, cheerfully, and expectantly. Like everything you want is going to show up shortly - you are just "clearing the decks" so that it has a place to set when it does. Remember the first step - get your own peace happening daily. And let the world revolve around you for a change.

4. Build your support group.

Surround yourself with people, books, recordings, articles, blogs, etc. that share your vision or some part of it.

These are mentors, mastermind group, accountability partners - they go by many names. The point is that you have some point, great or small, of your vision in common. And that's the point that you cover with them. Because you are helping them to achieve their own vision - their own purpose.

Move the rest off somewhere or let them drift away. You only want to concentrate on these few which you can directly help and they can help you. Seems harsh, but it doesn't have to be. Factually, you'll find that as you concentrate on your purpose, your vision, the people you need will start showing up in your life and all the distractions will start dropping away.

Your job is to simply concentrate on your vision and get their advice and support for that part of your vision they can contribute to. Don't bother them with the whole rest of it - keep that to yourself and someone who has that in common with you. No two people are exactly the same, even twins. No two people will have the exact same set of mastermind partners. But people can mesh and coincide at certain points. That's what you share with them - and help them with their similar point.

Remember the old adage - "You can't get without giving." Some say to give first in order to get what it is you want. And there is the best type of giving - open-handed with no expectation of a return. If you want success in your life, look around you and find someone you can help be more successful. For free. Sure you have your business - but every time you do something for someone else, give them a little more than they expected, like Wattles suggested a century ago, and as the Good Book said a few thousand years ago. Give in abundance and abundance will return to you.

It's just the way this universe is set up. (And why criminals and critical people live such awful lives. ) And why smiles are contagious.

- - - -

So there you have it. Write these down and memorize them. Get it so you can count these off on one hand (or your toes, if that's the way you count). Just five points. Reword them anyway you need to so they are easy for you to remember.

Get these going in your life and you really can't be anything but an outrageous success from here on out. Sure, I could write (and have written) books about this area - and so many, many people have throughout history.

The point is that these five points are all you need - and you can work out the rest, or whatever additional advice will come to you as you need it.

So:

1. Seek the Silence daily.
2. Find your vision.
3. Plan your work.
4. Work your plan.
5. Build your support group.

Or - Prayer--Goal--Plan--Work--Group

You see how it goes? Have fun with this!

9 Authors who have changed your life

There are 9 bestselling authors who continually sell and have changed your life.

You may or may not know their names - but someone you know has read their books and applied them to get incredible success, wealth, happiness, health - anything you could want, they have used the data in these books to find them.

Someone you know has read these authors and has changed their lives. And you look up to them or have been influenced by their own success.

These 7 authors comprise a personal development bible of sorts - composed of their books.

How to get inspired answers.

Here's how you would use them to take yourself to whatever heights you want, to achieve or acquire anything - anything at all - that you really want.

First, get copies of their books. This can be in any version, since they are all found in the public domain these days. I'd suggest you get the physical books, although you can also use digital versions.

Second, choose one book at random.

Third. in that book, choose a random point and start reading until you have an "AHA!" moment. This is where you suddenly have an insight on something you are doing, working at, or some way you have been acting.

Fourth, get a yellow pad and start writing down your inspired idea. Write down everything about it and don't stop until you've got it all down.

Fifth, put that plan into action - merge it into what you are already doing.

That's really the simplicity of it all. As you keep doing this, you will continue to refine your own purpose in life and the plan you are following to get it fulfilled.

It's just too simple. But it works - every time.

The 7 authors and their books.

Here's those authors and their bestsellers:

1. Napoleon Hill - "Think and Grow Rich", which was based on his 17 Volume "Law of Success" (Get both books.)
2. Wallace Wattles - "Science of Getting Rich"
3. Charles F. Hannel - "Master Key System"
4. Genevieve Behrend - "Your Invisible Power"
5. Dorothea Brande - "Wake Up and Live!"
6. Robert Collier - "Secrets of the Ages"
7. Claude M. Bristol - "Magic of Believing"

If you have the time to read all of these, you'll find (as I did) that they keep repeating the same basic data, although they give their own personal views of how this data applies to them and to people around them. You also get their distinct applications - how you can apply these into your own life, simply and easily.

I make no apologies for their writing styles or their influences.

I do tell you to keep an open mind as you read these. There are incredible data you are going to find for yourself that can make fantastic changes in your life if you let them.

A high-tech way to get inspired answers.

1. Get audio versions of these books and put them into an MP3 player or MP3-capable CD player.
2. Set this machine to play at random.
3. Play it in the background and keep your yellow pad to hand.
4. When you get that flash of inspiration - stop the recording and start writing.
5. When you finish writing, implement that new idea and it's plan into what you already have going.

Don't worry if you seem to find new things when you listen to these tapes. When you get an inspired moment, you tend to focus on that new idea and so quit receiving external inputs like listening or reading. What you should be doing at that point is writing down this inspired idea - so turn off that tape and bookmark that page so you have time to write it all down.

When do you do all this?

Probably you'd best be doing this at a set time daily - I like first thing in the morning, but it can be any time. If you are busy on your work - getting your plan done - then maybe you should do it at night when you're done for the day.

But you should do this daily and always keep your yellow pad to hand for the inspirations which strike you out of the blue.

And all the world's riches will become available to you...

Seriously.

Give it a try.

Update (9/27/08)

I would add:

Dale Carnegie: "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
and
Earl Nightingale: "The Strangest Secret"

Brings it up to nine.

Get a clue - there's a whole system out there running your (and everone else's) universe...

Of all these self help books, all those self improvement tapes, all the religious dogmas, every ideologue, there is a single underlying system which explains how everything works and fits together.

Woooof. That's one heady statement to make.

But I've been working this over for over 8 years now as a steady research and collecting notes the earlier 40-some - on just about everything that crossed my path. So when I say that I've been able to boil down the universe into a single system, it just might be plausible.

The basic is back on the farm. Did you know that Nature runs the same, no matter what you believe, or practice, or what party you belong to? True. Plant a seed anywhere on this planet and as long as it has enough sunlight, enough nutrients, and is warm enough to do it's job - you'll have a sprouted plant. Keep these conditions long enough and that plant will make seeds so you can make more plants.

Heated greenhouses in Antarctica prove it.

So how do all these religions say they are the only way out and that all others are (whatever)? They are simply running marketing silos, trying to build a monopoly of belief and so finance their buildings and what-not.

That's a bit cruel, and perhaps steps on everyone's toes at once. But if you analyze organized religions against marketing data, that's what falls out.

Back up a bit.

All - and I mean all - religions and phil0sophies contain certain common points. One of these is the "Golden Rule". Every single historical belief-system we have on this planet has recognized that there is a definite reciprocity on this mud-ball we live on. What ever you do has consequences - and these all come back to haunt or elevate you. Your choice - treat people like manure and you'll get manure dumped on you. Treat people with respect and you'll get respect. Be charitable, get charity. Help others, get helped.

On and on and on.

Most nations have outlawed capital punishment - who wants to cast that first stone?

I think that if you looked hard enough, you'd also find some recognition of the Law of Attraction in all these - but it's a different search. I know it's been written about in both the New and Old Testaments. And Huna mentions it - which is the oldest-known philosophic system still practiced on this planet.

Of course, this above would then be a complete study all on its own. And I'll leave that to theologists to study up as part of the postgraduate studies. I'll keep to the broad strokes.

Let's just go with this idea that, like Nature, we are all living on this planet under the same rules. We all have bodies which are different hues and shades, but all function the same. There are only so many blood types, and they can all be fixed with varying degrees of success when they get broken.

It is just logical that all these religions, cults, and belief-systems (extremist, moderate, conservative) work because of that underlying common system, not in spite of it.

How would I go about explaining it?

1. Take Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" as the base, and back up to Huna's 7 principles to explain how this works. 
2. Expand to his Law of Success, and widen the scope to include Haanel's Master Key System, as well as Mental Chemistry. 
3. Compare with Science of Getting Rich. 
4. Examine the phenomenon of "The Secret", which is pushing the Law of Attraction. 
5. Review Atkinson's works along this line, as well as Earl Prevette. 
6. Back this up through Genevieve Behrend to Thomas Troward. 
7. Which then brings us right back to Huna as an overall and underlying base for all modern self help. 
8. Then come forward through current religions to show their similarities and posit the point that all religions (and all belief-systems/world-views) depend on a common system of philosophy in order to work at all. 
9. Now, the base foundation for a common system could be laid, taking just the key points held in common by all above authors and Huna. 

 And this is just the beginning. Once you lay out the basic principles, personal techniques could be approached, so that anyone could improve just about anything in their lives (thought being the first point of creation, any system of thought would then enable anything to be created/achieved/acquired).

As well, an approach to world peace is possible. If all war is either economic or ideological in origin, it would be possible to show that everyone would be richer if you allowed free commerce, as well as other human freedoms.

This underlying system does exist. Interestingly, it isn't a question of proving it, but disproving it... Because it runs on faith for fuel. Faith is based on knowledge and understanding. Those that doubt only limit themselves. The best gains to be had are by thoroughly immersing oneself in the subject. You can't try out a pair of boots to see if they fit and wear well unless you put them on, first.