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By Thorsten on July 15, 2008 | 4 Comments
Money loves speed.
It’s a fact of life and a law of the universe much like the law of attraction. If you ever had an idea on how to make something that could solve a problem or simply make our life easier and then didn’t act on it, this post is for you!
Almost every time I go to the supermarket I get an idea for a food item that I wish they carried. Like so many times before, I tell myself that there is nothing I can do to initiate or speed up the inclusion of a certain ware in the lineup of a food store chain and so I simply don’t do anything.
Of course I also have many moments when I come back to an aisle only to find that at my next visit the very thing I was thinking about is *magically* on the shelf in front of me. This of course was no coincidence, but more like someone else had the same thought and bothered doing something about it to get the ball rolling.
And here lies the issue and it’s solution at the same time: When you are wishing on improving the world or coming up with a million dollar idea, chances are the universe will NOT simply deposit that money in your bank account. It most likely will give you a number of ideas which could all lead you along the path of success and eventually to wealth.
So, next time you get an idea, don’t dismiss it, don’t delay it. Write it down and then allow the creative mind inside you to find ways to act on your hunches.
Oh, and one morw thing: Every idea is given to many people at the same time, which explains the supermarket phenomenon. So the faster you act, the better your chances to succeed.
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By Thorsten on July 13, 2008 | 4 Comments
Congratulations on making it to this page. I’m proud of you. The reason I say this is because most people have the faint wish or idea to improve something in their life but will never take action.
Others have identified what they would like to change or at least confirmed that they would like to change something, and thus go to educate themselves on what can be done about it.
And this is where I come in with my blog. I’m not perfect - far from it, but I would like to share my experiences and my resources with you. What the majority of people in life fail to realize is that it takes determined and consistent action to achieve almost anything.
There is no such thing as a free lunch or “buy this book for 99,- and make millions tomorrow without any effort.” However, on the flipside most people also don’t give themselves credit for how far they have already gone towards a goal and thus burn out from frustration before they get to see the sweet payoff.
Today I will keep post very brief, but I want to give you a pat on the back for anything that you have achieved already, whether you know it or not. Keep doing what feels right and remember that you are often closer to the finish line than you think.
Let’s celebrate success and motivate you and those around us not to stop before the finish line.
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By Thorsten on July 12, 2008 | No Comments
Ok, I admit it, I am a metric kinda guy. I don’t do gallons or inches, cups (at least when I am cooking) and Fahrenheit means nothing to me.
I was raised in Europe and I’m proud of it, but that is besides the point here. I will attempt to convert the above price to roughly US $2.10 per litre of gas. Still lower than in most European countries by the way.
So here I am reading through the daily concerns of the masses on the Internet and I came across a fantastic post by a writer over at the LA Times who took the time to find the positive sides of ‘high’ gas prices. His name is Joel Stein and the complete article can be found here http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-stein11-2008jul11,0,258677.column
So what could possibly be good about a high gas price that would prompt me to write this post for you today? Well, I can think of a few things…
In society change usually happens slowly and from the grassroots level up. Once the desire of the masses reaches a tipping point, extraordinary things are possible. Think for example of the French Revolution, where the people tumbled an empire to found a Republic which served as an exemplary democracy in Europe at the time.
Or take the Decleration of Independence in the US history and its three most quoted principles of:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
But since then a lot has happened as well that may not be written in a historic document or carved in stone but be just as important for mankind. Change often happens when somebody is slightly out of their comfort zone and the options to adjust to this change are streching our imagination. Luckily, high gas prices are not usually a life or death type of scenario, but are mote subtle in nature because they affect the majority of things that we enjoy in life - at the status quo!
Now what if, just for the sake of argument we envisoned a life that was not so relient on fossil fuels and more focused on the human factor. That, my friends might look something like this:
You get up in the morning and in your Pjs you make some coffee before you go to your office. That office is a laptop on top of your desk in your home office overlooking the yard where your children are playing. It won’t be a very busy day, and that meeting you have scheduled in the afternoon will only require a phone line and some of your great ideas.
Your kids grab their backpacks and walk out the door, but instead of you having to drive them to school in your SUV, they can walk the 3 blocks and enjoy some fresh air and sunshine on their way there.
As your workday winds down, you feel like you need to do some shopping for dinner and maybe have a little workout to keep you in shape. So why not combine the two and get your bike which allows you to reach the neigherborhood store in about 10 easy minutes. You want to make a healthy dinner and visit a few stores which are all side by side on the same street and cater nothing but the feshest local ingredients.
You won’t need a car for this because likely you will be back the next day to pick up the stuff you need for the following days.
As you come home you cook dinner and after your spouse and kids have eaten with you, maybe it’s time for a game or a movie. Whatever it maybe, most likely you can enjoy it from your own livingroom, and chances are the kids in the row behind you won’t throw popcorn at you either.
The weekend arrives and you feel like going out of town. No problem, you load up your Hybrid car and take the family to a destination in the countryside. Quaint, close and most likely a hidden secret which is why you are getting the B&B at a very lovely price.
I’m not trying to recruit for Greenpeace here, because I enjoy the comforts of modern civilization as much as you do, but I am fully convinced that more good will come out of this current trend than bad.
Here is another point you can’t dismiss. Who is most affected by the current rise in prices? The poor and the middle class, right? Mortgage foreclosed, SUV sold, inflation is rising and nowhere to go…
I beg to differ on this one. It may have occurred to you that the rich will always be fine, no matter what the economy is doing and no matter who runs the country. Isn’t that alone an incentive to get marvelously wealthy and simply not worry about gas prices and all the other hype that is surrounding us? All you need is to adopt the thinking and the ways of the rich and you can be on your way.
Lastly, let me conclude with this. The sheer flood of innovation in new greener technology and adapted living for modern societies such as ours will far outweigh the current tipping point of whatever it may be that’s on the news. It’s time to realize that out potential as human beings is truly endless, only curtailed by what our ego tells us we cannot do. But no true leader is going to let that stop him.
Remember, the leaders will always be fine soaring above the crowd, while the masses will always be complaying like lame ducks that are looking for someone to do it for them. Exercise your divine right to be a leader. Let me welcome you to it…
All the best
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By Thorsten on July 11, 2008 | 2 Comments
Let me ask you a serious question: “What do you want in life?”
Do you want financial independence? Do you want to be famous? Do you want to meet the partner of your dreams? Or maybe have a big happy family with a nice house to live in?
Whatever it is that you want from life, the very first step is to get really clear on what your dream looks like. And how can you tell if you have found what it is you would like to achieve? Well, that part is quite easy. You can watch the language of winners and compare it with your own language.
People that are going to be successful have a definite plan for action based on a timeline and an outcome. They are not afraid to fail because they know that each failed attempt is a step closer to success. Andy Nullman once said to his audience: “Jump and grow your wings on the way down.”
People that are eternal dreamers use words like “someday I will” or “I want to” and “I wish”…
That language gives you a predetermined excuse to failure because dreamers don’t like to loose and learn from their mistakes. And here’s another clue that gives it all away: Someday never comes !
Isn’t it always tomorrow that we want to start our new diet? or tomorrow that we will go to the gym, and save the money we spent at starbucks and start all the other things we ’ WANT’ to do.
Success is not a one day event when everything suddenly goes right and you never look back to how you did things before. Success is a journey and you have to set a definite start today to embark on it or else it is most likely never going to happen.
If you wish to achieve anything in life you must put a time limit on it. Now don’t be too strict on yourself with this one, but don’t fool around with time either. How many people do you know that have had an idea that they were excited about and then told you about it? probably a few, right?
Then you might have encouraged them to do something about it and asked them about their idea a few months later only to find out that they are still thinking about it? (Well there is a hint of what doesn’t work!)
It is easy to get to the top in life because so few people are trying. Most are giving up at the first sign of a challange coming their way, but this is really just a test of how willing they are to succeed. I’ll let you in on a little secret here: The universe never says no to your plans that are made with belief and conviction, but sometimes it will say to you : NOT YET.
So what have you got to loose other than missing out on success itself? Go on now and get started with something that has been on your mind.
I’ll be here to support you, and I promise you that in the next few weeks I’ll be sharing a few ‘failures’ of my own that turned out to be fantastic successes after all.
I encourage you to send me your comments and share your stories.
Here is a last note of inspiration that I got from a trip to Reno, NV a few years ago. I went to an arts shop and found a little decorative stone there that had the following on it: “What would you do today if you knew you couldn’t fail?”
Think of that rock and take that first step in anything you have been holding back and I promise you it will lead you to a fantastic success if you committ yourself to it.
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By Thorsten on July 10, 2008 | 2 Comments
With our global population having crossed the 6 billion mark, there is certainly no shortage of people we ‘compete’ with for certain things in life. While the media is very good at pointing that out to us it provides little hope if you subscribe to the lack menatlity of thinking that grips most of society.
If the media were right, then how is it that a few among us should be so lucky to not be affected by the woes of a recession, or that they don’t have a foreclosure letter coming to them from their bank?
I don’t have the answer to all these questions but I will tell you this for sure: last night I went to a high-end restaurant in Nashville and had to wait for over an hour to get a table despite a confirmed reservation.
Anybody who will tell me that the people eating there are affected by the so called recession must be plain naive.
If that is all true, then what makes the difference between those that are successful and those that are failing? Maybe there is something that they are doing different from the rest of the population that gives them an edge.
And indeed, that is the case! The single most important thing you must do in life is to be true to yourself and find out what you can do better than anybody else.
While that might sound a little crazy at first, it is the only guarantee that you will find success in what you do. Now why is that I can hear you ask…
Well, let me illustrate with a little story: I am very fond of travelling and especially enjoy beautiful hotels. So on one of my travels I found myself in Wichita, Kansas at the Hilton Hotel. A stormy afternoon confined me to my room and I went trough the nightstand for something to read.
I found a copy of a book by Conrad Hilton called “Be My Guest”, which was essentially an autobiography of his life experiences. I absolutely enjoyed the book and finished it in about 3 hours.
The single most paramount factor that helped Hilton succeed during the trying times as a hotel man, was the fact that he had a certain way of doing things.
In short : HE WAS CONRAD HILTON and didn’t try to be anybody else.
Once you accept that all you have to do is choose to be yourself everything will change. You will find your way of expressing yourself in business and in life.
You will find the thing or things that you do better than anybody else and then all you have to do is continue on your path with the firm knowledge in your mind that you will succeed with then successful formula of doing things “Your Way”.
And when you have reached that point in your mind, something else will soon become very clear. You will realize that despite what you may have been told by your parents or society, you have NOBODY that will be able to compete with you.
Think about it: there are hundreds of hotel chains but there was only ONE Conrad Hilton, there are thousands of singers but there was only ONE Frank Sinatra…
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By Thorsten on July 8, 2008 | 2 Comments
…Once you have had about 5 days to experience the calm and peacefulness of this exercise, you can begin to move to another step.
In her book “Creative Visualiztion” Shakti Gawain gives a full account of how to write powerful affirmations that will stimulate the mind to prepare itself for a successful future. In my previous post I mentionend the most common one which deals with creating more financial abundance.
Before I give you an example on how to apply the above strategy I want to share something of importance with you. The most crucial step to improving your financial situation actually lies in clearing your limiting beliefs about money which are the real reason you have not been able to attract it so far. The majority of people have no problem with the statement : “I want more money” but when we dig a little deeper they believe many negative things about having money or about how they view rich people.
I won’t endavour to clear all the limiting beliefs that seperate you from having money, but I want you to know about the most im portant one. You have to believe deep inside that you deserve to have the money you intend for. One way to speed up this process is to spend the money on things you care about before you actually have it. By this I mean to go and play the money game that I have outlined in a previous post. It will help ease your mind and facilitate the exercise I am about to describe.
Now back to the original exercise: once you are in your meditation and you have a quiet mind, it can be veiwed as a blank slate for you to create anything from. Deepak Chopra has called this the “infinite field of potentiality” in many of his works. Any intention that is introduced into this field will manifest itself in proportion to your subconscious being ready to receive what you are asking for.
That means that if you state a sentence such as : “I am now making more than $ 5,000 a month from my work and I deserve it” you have effectively managed to create a fertile ground for this intention to become a reality.
What is very important for you to do now, is to continue with your mindfulness meditation on a daily basis and be consistent in your affirmation. If your mind has no or little experience with this it may take some time before you see results but I can promise you this patience is well worth it and as you get better at it, manifesting money or anything else you intend for will become an easy and fast process.
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By Thorsten on July 7, 2008 | No Comments
The other day I wrote about setting your dreams high enough to have something to aspire to, and today I’ll follow up to that post with another priceless secret.
Most people have actually no idea what it means to fully focus on their dreams and intentions. Or worse, they might not even really know what it is they want from life and thus wander around with many ideas but their lack of a broader plan will keep them in misery.
For sake of arguement I want to focus on those of you that have a dream in somewhat defined form, and to make things a bit more concrete, let me pick the most common intetion i have come across by far: “I intend to have more money.”
I understand that money is not everything in life and that there are so many other beautiful things we can focus on, however most people would still go for money first and all the other things they could potentially get with money after that.
So here is what I need you to do:
Find a quiet space where you are sure not to be disrupted for about 5 minutes or so.
Sit comfortably, or lie down if you wish and close your eyes.
Now all I need you to do is breathe and focus all your mind’s attention on that action.
You will invariably notice that your mind wanders all over the place, and that is ok…
When it does, simply bring it back by focusing on only your breathing.
If you can committ to doing this for about 5 days without missing a day and can last for about 5 minutes each day without your mind wandering, you have already mastered the foundation of attracting things into your life.
The next step will be a simple addition of a carefully worded intention…but I’ll be writing about that tomorrow in a seperate post.
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By Thorsten on July 5, 2008 | No Comments
I vividly remember the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger from a few years ago when he told a reporter that there is no sense in being modest with your dreams. To the contrary, he has always followed the philosophy that you have to have a few dreams in the bank because sooner or later you will fulfill one and nothing is gonna burst your bubble faster than having no dreams to chase.
Last I checked, Schwarzenegger had pretty much fulfilled enough dreams for a few human lifetimes. He went from a teenage bodybuilder in Austria to Governor of California in a mere three decades or so.
Another one of my favorite examples is Richard Branson, who bet his shirt a few times over, and built up a few companies such as Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic and now a little phone comany offering just about the coolest mobile phone system I have ever used. He became a billionaire - but not by being modest.
There are two main elements I want to hit on with my post today that will get you started on being a master visionary/ or a full dreamer with a vision to go for.
1) Don’t bother with the small stuff keeping you busy every day while you follow the system we like to call ’society’. Go big on your dreams. If it stretches your imagination, you have a good start. If you ever had a conversation with your parents or close friends and they told you there was no way something you felt passionate about could be done - BINGO - you hit the nail on the head and just found yourself a dream for the vision vault. Notice I said ‘vault’ ? Dreams and visions are cool, but chances are few people will support you in your path in the beginning so it would be wise to protect you dream.
2) If you have no idea at all on how you are gonna do what you dream about, don’t worry. Les Brown once told me at a speaking event: “It’s none of your business how you’re gonna do it. So just be hungry and go for it.” The rest will take care of itself.
I found that to be true. Over the last few years I have been witness to marvelous dreams becoming reality. Some were my own, some were of people I knew , but all seemed too good to be true to society.
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By Thorsten on July 4, 2008 | 2 Comments
Let me tell you a little story about a problem I have been having: The last car I bought was a lovely VW Golf back in ‘99 , and although I adore that car and it may very well be built to last forever, I starting feeling the need for a newer car.
That said I have been browsing websites, papers and have visited at least three dozen car dealerships in search for the right fight. To no avail. For about two years I managed to procrastinate and simply told myself that surely this time was the last repair I was going to pay for before I would sell or trade in my VW. It got so bad at one point that a good friend of mine even told me the last few repair bills were higher than the actual value of the vehicle.
I thought I was doing great with my half-hearted search efforts mainly because I managed to keep myself busy instead of actually moving towards my intended new car. Enough is enough, something had to change. But what was I doing wrong. Having read and applied a few rules of setting a clear intention and then simply letting go of the outcome while fully trusting that the results would be there I surrendered to the basic principles of the Law of Attraction.
The missing element was clearly the fact that I had no clarity in my intentions on what I was really looking for. Simply having the idea in my head that one day I was going to buy a car that would be the perfect fit in every way was not enough to set the wheels of the universe in motion.
So, here is the list I made for myself regarding the car I intended to find:
2003 Model or newer
Toyota Corolla, Matrix or RAV4
75,000 km or less
A/C is a must have
no silver, red or green car
single owner
local car
no ex-rental vehicle
no accidents
$ 12,000 or less
Being very proud of my list, I lokked at it a few more minutes on the Thursday I wrote it and then simply folded it and put it into my desk drawer. The very next Saturday, I set out to find my perfect car in one day of shopping. For those of you that didn’t yet read my ‘About’ page, I am German and we tend to take cars very seriously.
My girlfriend and I drove to about three dealerships without any convincing leads and the day was moving by quickly. Then we stopped by another seller only to find out that all they sell for used cars are vehicles with accidents that have been fixed up to look good as new. Getting slightly frustrated I wanted to try one more lot, but they were hard to find and so we ended up parking in an adjacent car lot instead. The sales guy was about ready to pack up for the day, but decided to speak to us anyways.
And that was a good move…
In the back of his lot, hidden behind countless other cars was a white Corolla that looked as good as new from where we stood. So Iasked about my must have’s and it turns out the car made the cut. After a short test drive and a look under the hood, I took only about 15 minutes total to buy this car, get it insured and drive home with it. We were obviously happy to have found something that day, but the true realisation hit me the next day when I cleaned up my desk drawer.
Here I had the original list of the intentions I had communicated to my subconscious mind and as I went through it I couldn’t help but feel overhwhelmed by the accuracy of its manifestation:
We had bought a
2003
Toyota Corolla
70,500 km
with A/C
in white
from a single owner
local to our province
it was not an ex-rental
accident free
for $10,000
Imagine that without me even looking at that list while we were shopping or consulting it after the initial time I had written it. Now that was truly amazing.
The lesson here is as simple as it is profound - Never underestimate the magic of clarity ! It changes everything when you get clear on what you want and then simply set it and forget it. (At least consciously).
So next time you are getting to a point of frustration with anything in life:
Take a piece of paper, get clear and then let the universe handle the rest. It may take you more than one Saturday to manifest what you intend for, but I am here to tell you it works every time and always delivers.
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By Thorsten on July 3, 2008 | 2 Comments
Dr. Wayne Dyer once said these words that change everything about our reality. He told his audience: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Take a second to read that again and then tell me you are not at least a bit curious about this statement. I know I was when I first heard it. Does this mean I can actually have a say in what happens to me? Better yet, can I control ‘MY OWN’ reality?
And indeed that’s what he meant, because once you understand the profoundness and the depth of this truth, it will change your life and turn it upside down. When was the last time you felt that all things are pointed against you. Did you ever think that there is nothing you can do to change the world around you because you are just ‘one’ person and there are so many unknown factors?
What if I told you that against the seemingly staggering odds of you affecting anything in this world, there is a surprising and simple way to change what you experience ? Would you be cusrious to know a bit more ?
Of course you would.
Reality is a subjective experience for each of us, which explains why one and the same objective experience can prompt people to have completely different labels for that experience. Let’s take a simple example to illustrate my point on that: Imagine you are waiting at a bus stop and the bus is late. That is a common experience most of us had in our lives. Now imagine that one person is putting the label on this event that says: “I hate the fact that the bus is late because it will cause me to waste my time here while I could be doing something else. ” The other person looks at the SAME event with a different label and thinks positively: “I don’t mind that the bus is a bit slower today because I have an interesting book with me and since I’m in the middle of the chapter, I’ll probably get a chance to finish this one while I am waiting. ”
As you can see from this example, the choice in the label is what decides whether we have a positive or a negative experience. Let me give you a quick story from my own life that just might convince you. A couple of years ago I rented the two top floors of a large old house in an area that had some problems with frequent break-ins. It wasn’t really a bad area of the city, but because most houses had lots of lush greenspace and there wasn’t too much street-lighting, it was an easy neighborhood for thieves.
In that house there also was a basement unit that had a seperate entrance around the side of the garden. That unit waqs home to the teenage son of the homeowner and a friend of his and shortly after they moved in they ended up with a puppy. It wasn’t a small dog either, they had gotten a Rottweiler. Within a few months the dog had grown and slept outside in the yard. All along the dog was fairly noisy at night, scratching, whining and at times barking at a squirrel in the bushes. At first that bothered me since the favorite area where the dog slept was right below my bedroom window and sleep was only possible with a few interruptions. So what to do about the noisy dog ?
One day, I decided to reconsider my options in the matter and looked at the situation in a different way. I no longer viewed the dog as a nightly nuissance because of the noise, and instead I was thankful that we had such a large dog to guard the property at night. Suerely, if I can hear the dog, everyone else could too, and no burglar would be dumb enough to climb over a gate straight into the yard of a male Rottweiler. And here is the amazing thing that happened right after that decision.
I never once had a noise issue with the dog again. It was in the yard every night and did it’s rounds, but there was little barking, scratching or other disruptions to my sleep. I actually slept much better than before becaue my mind was made up that we were not going to have a break-in at this place due to an attentive watchdog that I had embraced as part of the household.
There is an element of the subconscious mind that makes a switch and suddenly you see the world around you with a different filter. You may argue that nothing has changed to the outside observer, but I am here to tell you that it doesn’t even matter because the only reality that will matter to you is the subjective experience of it.
I suggest you make a list of things that are currently weighing on your mind and then see if you can’t find a shred of good in each of them. Once you have that anchor, rewrite each with the new label and then throw out the page with the old issues. You will be amazed at what regular practise of this simple strategy can do to improve your life every day.
Over time, the new way of thinking will take hold in your subconscious mind and you will default to positive interpretations of your reality shedding the burden of being a victim of your daily life and taking control of your reality.
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