Anchor Your Own Abundance

Recall the tuning forks we looked at earlier.  We know that if one is struck and placed near another that has the same frequency, the second will begin to resonate with the first.  Stop the first, and the second will go on resonating.  Through the application of energy, the first tuning fork puts forth a vibration at a particular frequency.  The second fork, in its creation, was built to put forth or receive the same frequency as the first.  We see that the net effect the application of energy has is resonation, and as it is for the tuning forks it is for us.   We resonate with, give energy to, and get energy from the thoughts, conditions, and experiences that share the frequency of our own vibration.  

You get what you focus upon; you get what you are.  You have likely heard the great truth from Proverbs 23:7: “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”   It is of primary importance that we think deliberately in our hearts in order to deliberately achieve that which we desire. The work of deliberately seeking material for and creating specific and detailed thoughts and images that will become central to your state of resonance is step six of this system.  This step is concerned with action and will be accomplished through the second action tool as explained below.

You get what you focus upon; you get what you are.  It is now time to refine and strengthen your resonation with affluence.  Think of affluence as a set of goal posts in a great game of life.  Though the game of life and goal posts as goals, are overused metaphors, they have a brief purpose in this system because the metaphor demonstrates that you have to know where the goal posts are in order to play the game properly and to score the winning goal.  Though life is not a game and affluence is not a shot at the net, the metaphor has merit in the image it creates: you have to determine what affluence is to you and what it looks like in order to reach your goals and realize your desires.  You have put effort into this area already, and it is now time to refine and strengthen the work you have done. 

Ready?  Look at this series of questions and feel the quality answers that resonate with you; find the answers that make practical sense and bring a quality feeling to you.   The questions follow.  What is your vision of health?  What does your vision of wealth look like?  What makes you deeply happy?  These are broad, guiding questions you will use to form your focused resonance images.  The point here is that you are looking for images that resonate within you.  When I see my image of health for instance, I am just finishing a tough hike in the coastal forest and I am smiling, full of energy, and ready to vibrantly take on some quality work later in my day.  It’s a nice image and it feels good to go to that image when I think of health; there is a lot of meaning and feeling associated with a quality image, so let’s get you working on your special images that you will carry with you always.

You understand and believe in the power of resonant energy, and you know why it is important to become resonant and you have chosen to do so.  You have an understanding of consciousness and of the connection between the parts and of the Whole Self.  You are now ready for Action Tool #2: create definite and detailed, consciously directed and intensely focused images of your desired state of affluence and commit them to deep and feeling memory.  The images you are about to create have to be of the deepest and most feeling sort because saying you want affluence and providing a general idea is not enough; it’s too vague and you can only obtain a vague realization from a vague image.  The work is upon you now.  It is time to take up some paper and a pen and write at the top of three blank pages a heading on each: on the first, health; on the second, wealth; and on the third, happiness.  You are about to fill those pages.  Please don’t concentrate on being neat and tidy during this exercise; you are meant to gracefully enjoy the flow of creativity.  You can always do a good copy later if you need to!  J

When you begin, it will be important to create your images in the positive.  That is to say that if you want an image that is concerned with eradicating fear in your life, don’t focus on ‘no fear’ focus upon confidence and well-being or strength.  If you want to eradicate lack, don’t focus on ‘no lack,’ focus instead upon abundance.  The reason for this is that you must focus upon and resonate with what you want, not what you don’t want.  When you begin in a moment, you will be committing three types of information to the page: (i) drawings or doodling, or cuttings of pictures; (ii) writing in the form of image phrases and sentences; and, (iii) splashing and smatterings of single words related to the heading.  Each of these three categories is of course related to your presently desired, optimal state of health, then wealth, then happiness.  Again, the reason for doing this is to create focused, believable mental images with strongly associated feelings that you will carry about and focus upon in your daily internal environment.  These images will help you to create your state of resonance in every moment, and quickly right your state when you stray.  They will help you to liberate and generate energy from the alignment of the Whole Self. They will become the quality images you immediately associate with health and wealth and happiness each time you hear or utter these words.  So, this is pretty important.

Before you begin filling those pages, let us take a moment to look one more time at belief.  This is so critical.  You have to believe your images or you will create false and weak resonance, and your ensuing actions will not be of the necessary quality to attain your desires.  You must believe your images, but what does that mean to this exercise?  Well, in a practical sense it will not do to create an image of your health wherein you are the fastest person on earth as well as a professional power-lifter and champion jockey all in one; it will not do to imagine that next week you will be the richest person on earth; and it will not do to imagine that you will laugh and giggle and live in a constant state of hysterical delirium.  No, your images must be first and foremost believable.  Stretch to the outer edge of your current state of belief, but go no further.  As you begin to feel the power of this system, as likely you have already, you will be able to grow your images as it feels appropriate; you will be able to expand your definitions of health, wealth, and happiness as you develop greater belief in your abilities and your growth.  Take on that growth when you feel it authentically coming from within you, but for now ask yourself and answer: “What does my really wonderful state of increasing affluence look, sound, feel, taste, and smell like in the next six months?”  You will absolutely be able to come back to this exercise, and you will do so fluidly and frequently well before six months is over.  You can see, though, that a solid start with believable material is vital.  Success begets success, so start with a believable stretch.  You need not wonder how you will accomplish and obtain the conditions and experiences you image, but the answers are in the fact that (i) you will deeply resonate with your images thus creating the immediate benefits associated with powerful resonation, as outlined previously; (ii) in the next chapters you will establish important direction and learn to take effective action daily thus choreographing events that will open doors and smooth paths for you to realize these images; (iii) you will learn and engage further action tools to complement and develop what you have already learned; and, (iv) you will come upon serendipitous happenings, excellent intuition, energy to make change, positive states of motion, and much more that is excellent and well.  This is just the way it is!

There is no time like the present… in fact there is no other time than the present… so, please begin.  Find a quiet place, put on some soothing music, pour a cup of tea, calm down and cool out into those powerful Alpha waves… enjoy doodling, phrasing, and splashing words upon your pages.  When you are done in an hour or in a few days, use the pictures, images, and words you have laid down to create a solid, grounded image or series of images in your mind.  You will know that you have completed this action well when you are able to hear or say each of the words health, wealth, and happiness and have an immediately associated image or image set occur strongly in your mind – one that simultaneously initiates deeply resonant feelings of satisfaction, and rightness.   Spend the time you need to fully complete this action step.  Focus on affluence, as you get what you focus upon; you get what you are.  Your belief in and work with these understandings is directly related to the success you will have positively influencing affluence in your life….

Consciousness is more than one thing…

Consciousness is more than one thing.  It’s actually four things!  And knowing that gives you immense power to create your own personal synergy.

Here’s what you need to know: Read the rest of this entry »

We are like batteries… ! (?)

Human beings are great energy getters — great energy users. 

Like a battery, however, we do not store energy well over the long term. 

It is like this: we eat and sleep and rest to gain energy — when we are active we use energy.  If we practice a disciplined management of the FLOW of our energy between intake and activity, we can create greater and greater capacity for the storage and use of energy.   If we simply store and conserve energy, however, we do NOT get a good return on our investment.

Have you ever had a flashlight sit for a year?  Is it as bright one year later as it was the day it was purchased?  We know from common experience that it will not be as bright.  It loses energy in its lack of use.  The energy dissipates and is lost and is never available for a useful purpose: in this case, the illumination of dark places.

Imagine just sleeping and eating for a year.  Would you be ready to run several marathons and lift copious weights for days and days as a result?  Of course not!  The return on conservation of energy over the long term is not good.

This doesn’t meant that rest and relaxation are not useful and helpful, but we are at our best and our most effective and efficient when we manage our energy in the short term and build our capacity to USE energy.  We are most effective as short-term energy gainers and as energy users.

If you have been reading other entries in this blog, you know that we are energy creators as well…

Create something with purpose,

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed.

Piercing the Ego Consciousness

Section 25 — The Synergy in Life System

You really really have to read and digest this bit….  It is exceptionally powerful information.  Understanding ths construction of ego signals the beginning of a new path.

Piercing the Ego Consciousness

In each of our heads there is an ongoing stream of thought and even a voice that rambles on through nearly every moment of our existence.  In doing so, it is creating a resonance, yet most people are wholly unaware of and not in control of the thoughts and so not in control of the frequency; most people are not at all in touch with their resonance, it just happens haphazardly because the stream of thoughts go on without direction.  To a great extent this stream of thinking and the emotions associated with it is compulsive, reactive, repetitive, and involuntary – not at all under control – in fact, they are controlling you.  Read the rest of this entry »

What is Systems and Synergy.

There are always good questions and comments regarding Systems and Synergy.  Orlando recently checked in with a nice comment.  In my daily life, people keep asking me questions like: ”So, just what is this systems and synergy you write about.”  I always try to explain with… well, too many words. Then I realized just the other day that to have a practiced, concise answer to this good question is not slick or glib.  I realized that a precise and concise answer is important and necessary.  Here is the answer: Read the rest of this entry »

Positive Self Talk Reduces Stress and Happiness Makes you More Successful!

Positive Self Talk Reduces Stress and Happiness Makes you More Successful!

I like the ABOUT website because it hosts experts in many fields.  I have an application on my igoogle page that feeds headlines from several sites to my desktop each day, including those on ABOUT.

This morning, the following articles really caught my eye.

Reduce Stress and Improve Your Life with Positive Self Talk

and the next one as well

Happy People — Secrets of Happy People

Now, these sites have all sorts of advertising, but that’s okay.  The information is sound.  It just goes to show — once again — how important directed thought is.  The resources I studied and synthesized for my book go back as far as 2000 or so years right through to the present.  Here is another example of modern science discovering the power of thought.  Systemitized synergy… its the best!  Have a great day!

Finding ‘UP’ through Systems Thinking

If you are sick, you really don’t have to do anything… at the very least, people don’t expect much of you.  That’s fair because most people feel a little low now and then and getting cut a little slack can go a long way to recovery.

BUT

What if there is no direction for a recovery?  To recover, you are returning to a state of balance and if you don’t know what or where that balance is you don’t know what direction to head for an optimal state of being. Kind of like jumping from a height into a lake and losing the ‘UP’direction for a moment.  That’s a bad moment.  It feels very out of control.   Now, what about organizations?  What if they are ’sick’ and no one expects much of them because they don’t have the talent, the funding, the facilities, the management team, the support, the recognition….  What if your organization is sick and you are floating along with no where to recover to?  No ‘up’.

What if?

You have to know where you are going in order to get there…. That’s what forecasting is all about and planning.  Do they work?  If the road you are driving on leads to a cliff, then all the planning in the world, all the best talent on board, the best equipment etcetera will not mean much by the time you reach the end of the journey!  Forecasts and planning must be made in health and plan for health.  A sick organization is not the best planner.  Its like a sick person.  It just wants to get better and lays low and does its best to recover.  Luckily for individuals, we are — most of us — able to return to relative health after being ill.  Thankfully, gratefully, we return to health.  An organziation doesn’t have such sophisticated organizing power as does the magnificent human body… so, it needs to see itself as a system — and within the system that it inhabits — before it can find its up.

The systems thinking exercise in objectivity is done through symbolic conversation.  Using symbols to ‘tell the story’ of the organization helps everyone first SEE what the parts make and then realize — collectively — just WHAT the organization is.  After this, purpose and direction are determined.  And THEN strategies can be implemented — but ONLY those that make sense in terms of the system’s organization, structure and capacity.  And, all along the way the tools of systems — the symbolic language of organizing — are used for deep conversation and clarification.  They are used to CREATE the organization’s picture and its story.  Complete a systems thinking exercise in objectivity and you are ready to apply energy and find the correct times and places to influence for gain, for good, for improvement.  Its the only way that works.  It is the way.

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed.

Systems Thinking in Daily Life: variation

You must read this post! It contains important information about your application of simple systems concepts to daily living both as an individual and as a member of a group. The assumption made throughout this post is that you would like to increase the occurrence of positive moments, actions, and directions for yourself and for your group(s). If this statement rings true for you, then have a look at how understanding variation gives you power.

Everything in our world is subject to variation. This is easiest to see in organic organisms in cycles such as sleep, growth, decay, times of high energy and times of low energy. The variation of inorganic organisms with the rhythms of electron orbits and string vibration is not as important to this topic, so we’ll leave that for another time. We are living organisms that have variation in our daily cycles of life. The key question to this post is “can we affect these variations to lessen the bad and increase the good?” YES!

Let’s first look at a hypothetical variation graph. This one will represent the variation we see in ourselves and groups with highs and lows in our states of mind, our peak functioning, our effectiveness, success… etc.

In this simple representation of variation, the vertical or ‘y’ axis represents highs and lows. The upper peak of each of the curves represent positive, and the lower peaks represent less positive or negative. The horizontal or ‘x’ axis represents time. So, in a simple analysis of this particular graph we can see that the curved line represents movement between positive and negative states over time. The constant horizontal arrow represents the midline or base state.

So, how do we get more of the ‘good’ and less of the ‘bad’?  One secret for both individuals and for groups lies in the arrow.  The arrow is the midline of contentment… or simply, being.  Think about the diagram and think about yourself.  When you are on a ‘high’ it feels pretty good.  You are elated, full of energy, electric.  When you are on a low, it doesn’t feel good; lows are just low and not any fun at all.  The midline though… it’s quiet contentment.  Just being is a nice place to be.

Think about this in a group.  Have you ever been in a group where a member is trying to hard to ‘make’ something happen?  They are trying to make things fun or they are trying to show themselves off… or, or, or.  You know what this feels like.  It’s tense.  Maybe you are lucky enough to have been or be part of a team or a work-group where everyone is content… wow!  That’s the place where things get done!  A contented person will work harder, longer, care more, and do more for the company or group and for their co-workers.  Read the studies on successful corporations, and you will see that this has been proved as truth over and over again. 

So, the question now remains, “how do we get to the arrow?”  Or a question like that would do.  Well, as individuals we try to simply ‘be’.  I explain this in great detail in my book.  There’s a bit of letting go and there’s a bit of constructing thought.  There’s a dynamic tension, but its attainable and in quite practical ways.  In groups, you need to define what a simple contentment looks and feels like.  Everyone wants to come to work to do a good job, feel good about their work, and go home feeling they have done a good day of work.  The problem is in the systems we set up around us.  There are things that frustrate and confound in every organization and without a good or even a professional facilitator to help you address your situation objectively,  you are often doomed to steep in your own self-created mess.

Seeing systems is half the solution.  Truly.  The other half is in learning how to direct the natural flow of systems.  Not so much trying to control, but working to steer and direct.  Its a soft science kind of like the soft martial arts that would rather redirect the energy of another and not meet it head on.  Why ‘take on’ your systems when you can influence them? 

There’s another place to focus upon for both groups and individuals and that is in the ascending curve just as it passes the midline of the arrow.  At that moment, one should work towards building the next success.  Build on the upswing.  Direct thought and action to the attainment of positive success at the upswing and you can move from one success to the next. Charles Handy, in The Empty Raincoat discusses this with charming alacrity as it applies to business success.  It applies to individuals as well.  Athletes do it all the time.  When they have achieved one level of a training cycle and got that success under control they reach for another, higher level of success.  If an athlete spends too much ‘down time’ they lose all their gains and have to fight twice as hard to train their way out.  No, the smart ones build success upon success.  A jet airliner spends a lot of fuel to get off the ground, but once up they use far less.  Its like that in our understanding of variation.  Think about, construct and direct success as you experience success and continually reach for the next success.  This is a powerful mental model for you to begin using.  Comments?  Tell me about a time you have used any part of these ideas.  Tell everyone about using them successfully in the next few weeks.  It works.  That’s all.

Using Systems Thinking Daily

In your daily life, you can use Systems Thinking.  It’s a helpful means of looking at things.  Let’s start with the “events”, “patterns”, “structure” pyramid.  Events are the top of the pyramid, patterns are at the middle, and then at the foundation is the structure.  It looks like this: your car breaks down.  That’s an event.  What do you do now?  Well, you have to react to the event.  That’s the smart thing to do.  Call a friend who knows cars, or call a tow truck, or in some way deal with the breakdown.  If you deal with events and only events, however, you don’t do much good for yourself.  Simply fixing the car doesn’t mean that you have fixed the problem — especially if the problem is that you never do maintenance on your car… but we’ll get to that in a minute.  Okay, so you have reacted to the event.  Read the rest of this entry »

Systems Thinking — Business Energy

Lately I have been navigating the WWW looking for sites that share similar ideas to this one.  So far a few have popped up and I’ve left comments and joined discussions. For a moment I would like to present one that is called Business Energy written and managed by Penelope Else.  She struck me with her interesting and voice-laden article about the need for business people to twitter.  I think she convinced me to tweet and twit etc.  More than that, however, it was when I read her ‘about’ page that I knew there was someone to recommend to readers at this site.  In blue below is a section of that page:

What is Business Energy?  It’s the vibe that your business puts out into the marketplace: the energy with which you create and implement new ideas, cohere as a team and engage with your customers.  It’s the source of your attractiveness for new business opportunities and the cause of your success.

It comes from a combination of: clear goals & planning, creativity, leadership resilience, good social networks and a healthy, motivating attitude towards staff and clients.  These don’t always come naturally, but they can all be learned.

If you have spent any time at this site looking around, you will recognize immediately what I like about Penelope’s words.  Vibe… vibration?  Energy….  Cohere as a team = alignment and synergy.  Clear goals and planning are right there with determining a purpose.  Good social networkers….

I have a great feeling about this site and Penelope’s work; I am grateful to her for creating such an enriching site.  I want to take just a moment to reflect on good social networking; it is at the root of building direction, alignment, purpose, and the synergistic focus that truly brings high performance results. Furthermore, I am becoming convinced that the web is presenting to all of us who are tuned in an opportunity to make connections, mine knowledge, stay current, make good decisions and so much more. If used correctly, I find that the web and related tools offers an opportunity to find streams of energy and thought that are useful and helpful in each of our growth and success. We have at our finger tips through techniques that can be learned, an opportunity to meet with people from all around the world in what Will Richardson calls intraspaced communities built around passion.  We are able to become more than the sum of the parts through working together towards common aims.  We are truly able to find others who align with what we align with and create vibrant cadence in positive directions.  Thanks for reading.

Douglas Leadbetter M.Ed

Balancing Systems

A system that has an aim or a goal balances over time.  Kind of like our body and the constant flux we are in to keep a constant core temperature of 98.6 F.  Or thereabouts.  This flux is called homeostasis and that simply means a balance over time.  We get a little cold, we put on a jacket or a sweater.  A little hot and the sweater comes off.  We work hard, we sweat.   Get cold and we shiver.  All of this is part of our overall aim of … well, survival. 

A thermostat in a house balances over time.  Set it at the temperature you want and it reacts to changes in the internal environment of your house.  It gets a little cold, the heat kicks in.  It gets too hot, the heat comes off.  You know how this works.  The goal of this system is to keep a constant temperature over time.

These are examples of systems with an aim or a goal, balancing over time.  Now, let’s say you have something you want to achieve or a goal to be reached.  You WILL experience undulations — highs and lows — over time.  Knowing this is liberating.  You ever experience this?  You are feeling great and full of energy and you make some plans to work-out, lose weight, paint the entire house, learn how to play stocks…. And then a week later, you don’t feel as high and the stuffing comes out of your plans.  Well, this is a system that is finding the mid-point, finding balance.  Many people feel the low and give up.  THE LOW IS NORMAL!  Knowing this allows you to feel out the low, experience it for what it is, recognize it, carry on and find the balance of the system. 

Take this information to the bank.  Think about it a bit.  Everyone has rhythms — everyone.  The ability to see and understand those rhythms and experience them for what they are without trying to get away from them — that’s wisdom.  And wisdom is a path.  Follow your systems for a while and see where they lead.  Do you get manic?  Depressed?  Can you through gaining an objective view point, change habituated behavior?  Can you find points in the system to leverage, and others to simply allow to play out?  You can.  Of course you can.  Work with this idea.  Its about seeing the systems and working with them for greatest effect — for high performance.  All the best. 

Douglas Leadbetter  M.Ed.