Are We There Yet?

Are We There Yet?

 

In 1998 I set off on a cross country trip with my family. The trip was to last six weeks, take us to California and back, and include visits to nine baseball parks, six national parks, two amusement parks and a renaissance fair.  We packed up the Suburban and headed west.  Two hours into the trip, which already included a lunch break, my five year old daughter pops the question, “are we there yet?”  She had no understanding of the magnitude of the trip we were about to take, she just wanted to know when the fun would start.

 

So it is with out dreams.  We want to know how long it will be before manifestation.  Will it happen quickly or will it take forever.  There is no real solution for this.  There are however ways of encouraging progress.

 

The first way, as we discussed previously, is to learn how to manage the negative voices inside your head.  Another way is to learn how to maintain focus.  If we learn to develop unwavering focus, our desires will manifest at a more rapid pace.  Focus isn’t always that easy to maintain.  It is like a muscle that requires training.

 

Over the next several days develop a list of things that tend to distract you.  Take your time and include as much detail as possible.  Write down everything that comes to your mind.  You may even want to carry a sheet of paper in your pocket or purse so that you will be able to jot things down at a moments notice.

 

If you are saying to yourself, “geeze this is too much work”, you might want to include that as #1 on your list.

 

We will continue this exercise next week, so do you homework!

Mountain? What Mountain? Nobody said anything about a Mountain!

Mountain? 

What mountain? 

No one said anything about any mountain!

 

Ok, I can hear you saying, “Rosemary, Rosemary, you told me all I have to do is believe in my dream, have faith it will happen, and be grateful that I have received it, and it will be mine”.  Yes, yes this is true.

 

Remember this though:

 

Faith can move mountains, but the mountain wouldn’t come to Mohammed, so Mohammed had to go to the mountain!

 

Maybe you only have your dream, with no way of knowing how you are going to achieve it, this is perfectly fine.  Anyone who had achieved great things never knew at the beginning how they were going to do it.  They only saw the finished product and knew it would happen.

 

Beyond belief, faith and gratitude, there is another step.  Whatever your dream is begin to act on it and live it as if you have already achieved it.  Let me give you an example.  Say you want to get in shape.  Live your life as if you are already in the shape you wish to be in.  I will explain further:

 

After the birth of my first son I had 45 extra pounds on me.  I am only five feet tall, weighed 150lbs and was in a size 16.  To be honest with you, I had always been out of shape and overweight.  I felt miserable and I wanted to change so I started living like I was thin and fit.  I changed my eating habits, not by “dieting” but by asking myself “Is this what I would eat if I were thin and fit?”  I put pictures everywhere of girls that had the body shape I wanted so I would be able to visualize what I would look like when I achieved my goal.  The pictures were also a constant reminder of my dream. They helped me keep my focus and reminded me to live as if I was already fit.  I began an exercise program and when I wanted to quit, or not workout, those pictures motivated me and reminded me to live my dream.

 

Eight months after the birth of my first son I weighed 108lbs, five pounds less then the day I got married.  A few weeks later I discovered I was pregnant, again!  This was not a problem however.  I continued to live he healthy life style I had developed and only gained 23lbs.  I was quickly back to my 108 and eventually got down to 103 before I got pregnant again.  At the age of 31 I gave birth to my daughter and afterward was in the best shape of my life!

 

My point?  I didn’t see a way for my dream to happen.  I believed it could happen. I developed my plan along the way and I broke it down into parts.  Now matter what your dream is,  you can do it too!

 

Tags: Mountain, Mohammad, Believe, Dream, Focus

How Big Is Your Mountain?

How Big Is Your Mountain?

 

By now if you have kept up with all of your assignments you have a pretty clear picture of what your dream is and what challenges you will have to face to acquire that dream.  Look at that dream.  How far away is it?  How steep do you have to climb?  What obstacles do you foresee having to face?  If you look at that mountain as a whole it may look too steep and to difficult that may seem like a complete impossibility.

 

Lets take a look at that mountain from a climber position and not that of an observer.  If you were going to climb that mountain you would gather all the facts you possibly could regarding height, terrain, weather, dangers and delights. You would then estimate the amount of time you might be on the mountain and pack accordingly.  When you have done all of your prep work you then set off to climbing.  You don’t expect to make it to the top in lightening speed.  You plan your climb, you break it down into small sections with rest periods.  Occasionally you may find obstacles along the way that may cause you to re-plan you way to the top, or perhaps you find an unexpected pleasure that may cause you to linger a little longer on a certain section of the mountain.

 

If your Dream looks like Mount Everest yet you believe in is possible, then you can achieve it.  Don’t let insurmountable challenges get in your way.  Break them down to smaller challenges that you can manage.

 

Believe!  You CAN do it!!!!

 

Tags: Dreams, Mountains, Climb, Believe

Counter Attack

Counter Attack!

 

 

A few days ago I asked you to itemize your excuses.  Did you do it?  This is a really important step in the process of achieving.  It may sound silly, but these excuses may just wind up being the demon that destroys your dreams.  These excuses are the little voices inside your head that seem like the voice of reason, but is really the enemy with in, or your Gremlin as Rick Carson describes in his book “Taming your Gremlin”.

 

There are a number of different ways to handle that ugly voice that tries to convince you that you would be better off staying where you are and not reaching for your dreams.  One way is to itemize all of these negative thoughts and come up with a counter attack.  Develop ways to ignore the voice or to come up with a way of simply shutting it up.  Gagging the voice doesn’t come easy, yet the work involved will be well worth the time and effort. 

 

The first step in shutting down your negative thinking is to take the list you developed and dissect it.   Take your list and find a quiet time where you will be uninterrupted.  This may take as little as a half hour or as long as a week or so.  I urge you to take the time to devote to this exercise.

 

Take your list and answer the following questions about each statement you wrote:

 

1. Is there any truth to the statement? If the answer is yes answer these questions; Is there something I can do change it?  Is there help I can get to make the situation better?
2. If I ignore the voice, what is the worst case scenario?   What will happen if I go ahead?  What will the consequences be?  Let your imagination run wild!  Write it all down!  Then decide would it be worse if you didn’t try at all, or would it be worse if the worst case scenario happened? 
3. If you decide that the statement is not accurate and almost always that will be the case, change the statement around and make it a positive statement.  For instance, if your voice says “You are too old for that!” you would say to yourself, “Age is a state of mind, if my mind says I can do it, so I shall!”  Change each negative statement into a positive action statement. Then when your negative thinking starts in with you, counter attack with your positive statements.
4. If you find your negative voice is a dirty player and keeps arguing with you (and so it shall!).  Shut the voice down completely.  When the voice starts to engage you, do not engage it!  Do not have a conversation with it!  If you move on and think of other things, positive things, keep your focus! The voice will eventually give up and stop. 

Know that you are worth it and that you will succeed.  Keep your eye on the prize!

 

Your negative voice will fight long and hard so you have to have a good  counter attack.  Try the exercises listed above or reading the book “Taming Your Gremlin” by Rick Carson.

 

As always, I would love to hear from you! 

Happy Fathers Day

For those of you who are Fathers, or are like Fathers. 

Happy Fathers Day!

What makes you happy?

The “Law of Attraction” states that like attracts like.  That being the case if you want happiness, you must be happy.

 

So, what makes you happy?  True happiness must come from within.  You can experience happiness when you are with another person, doing a certain activity, visiting a certain place, or experiencing something you have always dreamed of.  This however is experiencing happiness, it is not being happy.

 

Happiness comes from within.  It is liking who you are and what you look like.  It is understanding who you are and knowing that you are honoring the person within. 

 

Exercise:  Take sometime to yourself.  Imagine that everything you know is gone or unavailable to you.  Your house, your loved ones, your job, your comforts, separate what you need from what you want.  Imagine that you have only what you truly need to survive.  Where is your happiness?  Explain it clearly.  Come to know it.  Having this be unshakeable in the throws of tragedy and success alike will help you achieve your dream and be happy while you are doing it.

 

I would love to hear what makes you happy!  Please E-mail me if you wish.

Tags: happiness, faith, believe, truth, dream

One of My Passions...

Poetry and Faeries!

Yes, Faerie is spelled properly.  It is the proper celtic spelling of the word. And yes, I do believe!

I have mentioned that I have a passion for poetry so I thought that I would share my favorite poem with you.  It was written by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) of Ireland

 

        The Argument

 

I've oft been told by learned friars,
That wishing and the crime are one,
And Heaven punishes desires
As much as if the deed were done.

If wishing damns us, you and I
Are damned to all our heart's content;
Come, then, at least we may enjoy
Some pleasure for our punishment!

                                   ~Thomas Moore