Action

Now if you've clarified your vision and backed it with a strong purpose for achieving your vision, you are ready for the next step. Think back to the original formula from my "Abundance is yours...so take it!" post. Here it is again: Thoughts=>Feelings=>Actions=>Results. The first step is "Thoughts". This step is taken by forming your vision of having whatever it is that you want. The next step is "Feelings". You took this step when you developed your purpose for having whatever it is that you want and became emotionally involved with your vision.

Many times while practicing the "I'm so happy and grateful now that..." exercise while seeing ourselves already having what we want and feeling the feelings this causes, we will have ideas pop into our minds. Often these ideas involve resources we already have or resources that are readily available to us that we hadn't thought of previously. The idea just gives us a new way that hadn't occurred to us before to pull everything together to create some income or cash flow. These ideas are our directions for taking the next step in the process: ACTION!

We've thought about what we want and enjoyed the feelings of already having it. These feelings set our subconscious mind to work straight away to find the fastest, easiest, most harmonious way to match our environment with our feelings. There is always some amount of work involved because action is required to "pull everything together" or tap into the "resources that are readily available". I mean, even if money falls right out of the sky (which has happened for some friends of mine...50's and 100's falling from the sky on I-95...no overpass, no airplane, no helicopter...just cash:) you still have to take action by reaching out and grabbing it!

This action is different from anything you've done previously though. It feels different. You'll very much enjoy the work, whatever work is necessary, because it is coming from inside of you. The action will be in alignment with who you are and what you came here to do; you're life's purpose.

This is my favorite part of the process because I love action! And if you are taking action then it makes sense to have a plan. Having a plan is very important because it gives you the opportunity to further clarify your vision and purpose. By having a plan, you've put in the time to figure out exactly how you want to go about achieving this outcome. This clarity allows you to walk more confidently in the direction of your vision because the plan involves steps for you to take. And, you can see how you can take these steps to get to where you want to be.

That said, I have yet to meet anyone who has had the foresight to create a plan that does not change and evolve somewhat along the way. This is because in order to be a successful plan, it must include other people. Creating money in your experience is generally accomplished through providing a service and or product that some other person accepts in exchange for money. There are of course other ways that money can flow into our lives and it is a good idea to be open to all of them. One thing all avenues for wealth have in common is that they all include other people.

Let's say that your plan includes allying yourself with a specific person for a specific reason that is vital to the plan. If this person happens to not willingly go along with you then your choices are to quit or to change the plan to include asking someone else. I recommend the latter. This means your plan must be flexible.

As you continue to see and feel your vision and take the steps in your plan, you will have experiences whereby you are impelled into what is called "inspired action". These are action steps that are not necessarily included in the plan. You will meet someone or be somewhere in a situation and something will happen that gives you the opportunity to take an unplanned step. Or a step you did plan, just taken in a way that is different from what you planned. This is perfectly normal and you should definitely follow your instincts in these situations. Having the plan gives you the confidence to do so. This is because you can simply look at the anticipated outcome of the surprise step and if this outcome is in alignment with the outcome of your plan then by all means take it!

So be diligent in looking for cues in life pointing you along in the right direction. When you receive an idea for immediate inspired action, take it. Try not to over think it or second guess or doubt whether it will work or not because placing your thoughts and attention in those sort of places can cause your life to grow in the direction of things not working out. Instead remain very clear that you are having these ideas for a reason. Power is always seeking expression. These ideas have come from within you and you are the one who knows the most about your life. Take the next step! In the mean time, stick to your plan as a track to run on and be flexible enough to make the minor changes when necessary.

Have fun with this and of course if you find you would benefit from some additional guidance you can always reach me via email: zebulon@lifemasters.us or on facebook: Zebulon Fry or the LifeMasters fan page. My next post will include the final step of the process. Until then I wish you all the best!

WHY?

If you've been doing the "I'm so happy and grateful now that..." exercise everyday for the past few days then you are probably feeling pretty awesome right about now! Writing is such a powerful exercise because it crystallizes your thought and makes it real; the thought officially takes form and is real once it moves from abstract thought into concrete reality as the words written on paper. Writing about your ideal life in the present tense and enjoying the feelings this generates is taking a huge step towards living it!

Taking this step is so huge because you are actually thinking about what you want in life. This picture of what your ideal life looks like is your vision for yourself. Creating a vision for your life is a key component of achieving the success you are moving towards because the vision is where you are going. How can you ever expect to get to where you want to be unless you are clear about exactly where that is?

Many times when we start the "I'm so happy and grateful now that..." exercise, we write about having all of the "stuff" we want e.g. the car, the house, the vacations, the shopping sprees, etc. These things are great and have incredible value because they provide opportunities to benchmark our success. What's more is that once these things begin to show up in your life because of this simple shift in your focus, you start to really understand just how powerful you are! This is a great exercise to incorporate into your daily routine and keep it there indefinitely because what we want in life tends to change and evolve over time. This activity keeps your eyes on the ball.

Once you feel you have a crystal clear and complete picture of your ideal life right now then you are ready for the next step. Your vision is complete. You have taken the time to build the picture in your mind of exactly what you want to see when you open your eyes. And, you are able to recall this picture at any moment and you do so often. The next question is: WHY do you want what you want?

This "WHY" has to be incredibly strong. It has to be powerful and motivational! This "WHY" is what gets you out of bed in the morning and it's the last thing on your mind at night when you are drifting off to sleep. This "WHY", whatever it is, gets you emotionally involved with your vision and keeps you there. This is the purpose back of your vision.

A vision is merely day dreaming and castle building unless it has a solid purpose back of it. So now that you are crystal clear on your vision, get crystal clear on why you chose this particular vision. What do you intend to do? The general outline for your purpose as it relates to humanity is: More good to all and less to none. This outline maintains the integrity of your purpose and there is plenty of "wiggle room" within this general framework for you to clearly express your purpose.

Your purpose for your vision is not for someone else, it is for you. Even if you think it is for someone else like a parent, a lover, your children, a friend or to "show" someone who apparently didn't believe in you in the past, it's not. It's for you! How you interact with your all of these people and how you and your family live from day to day will certainly change as this process unfolds. I can assure you with complete certainly however that if your desire is to be more now, then even if none of these people were in the picture you would still want to be more.

So work with this and figure out why it is that you want what you want. Here are a couple sets of questions you can ask yourself to get moving in the right direction:

1) What do I like to do? Why do I like to do it?

2) If I had $100 million dollars in the bank, what would I be doing right now? What would I do tomorrow? Who's life do I want to impact in a positive way?

Purpose is such a very important part of this process that enough really can't be said about it. It is the meat of the sandwich so to speak, the fuel in the engine. If you get stuck or want to share you thoughts on this part in exchange for honest feedback then by all means contact me via email: zebulon@lifemasters.us or facebook: Zebulon Fry or the LifeMasters Fan Page.

Work on this as long as it takes and keep shaping your vision as you go along with the "I'm so happy and grateful now that..." exercise. My next post will have advice on where we go once we have our vision solidly backed by our purpose for it. Cheers!

Abundance is yours...so take it!

We look at the abundance of life as it shows up as nature and see very clearly that there is an Abundance Principle back of all of life. Look how many acorns one oak tree produces! Take a look at an ear of corn with hundreds of corn kernels on it. Each corn kernel is a seed that can grow a new corn stalk that produces multiple ears of corn! We see the same with a watermelon and its seeds and so on.

The Upanishads is one of the oldest sacred texts of which we are aware. In the Upanishads it is written, "From abundance he took abundance and still abundance remains." To give you an idea of what this means, take a deep breath...as much air as you can fit in your lungs. Now let it out. Now take another deep breath. You can do this all day every day for lifetimes on end and there will always be more air than you can possibly breathe. This one of the best illustrations that I can use to demonstrate the Abundance Principle. This same Abundance Principle applies to ALL PARTS OF LIFE!

We are truly unlimited beings with unlimited resources at hand. You can have whatever you want in life and I KNOW you can do it. You are a powerful, creative, spiritual being! All of the power in the Universe is present at every point including the point of You. You are creative by your very nature. You are clearly spiritual because one day you will lay this body down and the body will be there in its entirety and yet it will not work because You will not be there. You can have the exact life that you want!

This formula explains the process: Thoughts=>Feelings=>Actions=>Results. When you choose a thought (and you absolutely do choose your thoughts), that thought causes you to feel a certain way. Those feelings cause you choose to take action (generally positive) or to not take action (generally negative). If action is taken, the direction of that action is based on the originating thought. Action taken causes the effect of results showing up in your life. This formula works based on Law.

You use this formula every single moment of every single day. Everyone does. The thing is that most folks are completely unaware that this is the creative process and they are unaware of their use of it. They are unconscious creators. Be a conscious creator! Use this tried and true, irrevocable, indisputable process to have the life you choose for yourself. It all starts with your thoughts.

Try this:

Wake up 10 minutes early tomorrow morning. Now I love to sleep and getting up 10 minutes earlier than usual honestly didn't sound very appealing to me when my teacher first suggested that I do this activity. So the next morning when the alarm went off a little earlier than normal, I turned it off and asked myself this question, "Am I willing to give up 10 minutes of sleep to change my life?" Because remember that you are growing. Growing always includes letting go of something. This gives you space to grow into the life you want. That day, I chose to let go of that extra 10 minutes of sleep and my life was changed forever.

Now once you're awake, grab a pen and paper and sit in an area where you can write comfortably. Then start at the top of the page with these words, "I am so happy and grateful now that...". Then finish the sentence and fill up that page with a description of what you want your life to look like. Remember to keep it in the present tense and to feel the feelings that are in alignment with the words describing you already living the life of your dreams. Do this activity every day...even on weekends.

Practice this activity to start and I'll give you a next step in my next post. Remember to feel it! Close your eyes every so often and see your life just as you have written it. Have fun with it!

Upcoming Events - July

1) Practical Prosperity Workshop

1Pm - 2PM on Sunday 3 July

CSL Asheville

2 Science of Minds Way, Asheville, NC 28806

http://www.cslasheville.org

2) Practical Prosperity Workshop

6:30PM - 8:30PM on Friday 8 July

Creative Thought Center

449-D Pigeon Street, Waynesville, NC 28786

http://www.mountainshops.com/ctc/index.html

3) Featured Guest Speaker

11AM - 12PM on 31 July

Spiritual Light Center

80 Heritage Hollow Drive

Franklin, NC 28734

http://www.spirituallightcenter.com/

Nothing to Fear

We really have nothing to fear. So often we don't even realize when we are afraid because we may be confused about what fear actually is. Of course it is difficult to deal with something we have not identified or are not even aware of in the first place.

We often talk about the experience of fear and the response called "fight or flight" as if they are the same thing and they are not. Fear is a psychological experience and fight or flight is a physical response we evolved over the years for our protection. One does not cause or necessitate the other. In fact, there is no real link whatsoever between the two. Sometimes individuals will have the circumstances that cause the fight or flight response and then will experience fear later on after everything has calmed down and they are no longer in danger.

Fear is always in the unknown. I have one teacher who explains this aspect of fear to his classes as follows (while in the same room with the class):

"...fear is always in the unknown. If I dumped a basket of cobras out on the floor here, would you be afraid? (Everyone in the class says yes.) What would you be afraid of? ("Being bitten!" everyone says.) Exactly. Now lets say you are bitten by one of the snakes. Are you still afraid of being bitten? (No) Now what are you afraid of? (Getting sick) Ok. Now lets say this snake bite has made you ill. Now what are you afraid of? (Dying)..."

So in this example of course no one is afraid of being bitten after they've been bitten because it's no longer unknown. They've lived through that part so they become afraid of the next unknown namely becoming ill as a result of the bite and so on.

How often have we had this experience of jumping from one fear to the next without even thinking or realizing the significance of the experience; so long as we are afraid we are ok. What a dramatic and emotionally draining experience that can be.

When we take a closer look at this concept of fear, we notice that it is the root of most any negative emotional experience in life. Doubt is being fearful that a fact we derived or were given isn't true. Envy is our experience when we are afraid we are inferior to another person. Jealousy is being afraid that we can loose something we hold dear, particularly in reference to a human connection. Experiencing anger means we are fearful that we have been wronged and usually includes the fear that we will not have the opportunity to retaliate. In general, most of our fearful experiences have to do with our fear of loosing something.

Having the knowledge that fear is NOT a necessary part of our experience is a huge part of overcoming it. Being aware of our emotions and what they really are is the other key component to conquering the overall experience of fear. We can simply ask ourselves these questions when we are having a negative emotional experience:

1)What emotion am I feeling right now? Often times a negative emotion is just under the surface and leaving it unattended can ruin our day. Identifying what it is that we are feeling shines the light of discovery upon the emotion and brings it out in the open so we can deal with it.

2) Why am I feeling what I'm feeling? If you get an answer that still has some emotional bite to it then ask yourself why that bothers you. Continue this process until the answers begin to have a neutral or diffused feeling to them. Then ask yourself:

3) What are some examples of other times that I felt this way for this reason in the past? Then categorize each example as either a) I was correct and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be; I'm still alive with some good lessons learned or the more likely category, b) I was incorrect so I wasted a lot of time being afraid when I could have felt good instead.

Asking ourselves this series of questions gives us the opportunity to take a look at what we are really feeling and why, which ultimately gives us the opportunity to choose a different emotion that may better serve us. Sometimes all we need in order to feel better is to simply give ourselves permission to do so.

Growth

Growth is a funny thing. Everything must grow. Whatever Life is, and when I say Life I mean that which animates you and me and causes the flowers to stand up straight and be bright, must grow by its own nature. That which does not grow, does not live. Change is constant because growth is constant.

However, we have all had experiences where we did not welcome this inevitable change. We resisted, which almost always resulted in pain. We held on to the old us with all our might, forcing life to tug all the more harder. Why did we do this? Why is it that as positive as growth sounds, sometimes it feels negative?

Growth is our adoration for a particular lover getting stronger and stronger by the day which of course feels great! On the other hand, leaving that same lover a while later for whatever reason is growth too and can be so hard sometimes that people have put it off for weeks, months, years or even their whole life. Anyone who has done this was basically willing to endure the slow, dull pain of being in a bad relationship rather than taking a big gulp all at once like with a breakup.

Every day we have many, many instances where we resist growth. The trick is being aware of them. Sometimes we get caught up in the details and circumstances of the situation and in these cases we have forgotten the truth; that we are just growing. Simply being more aware that the seemingly negative situations in our lives are really gifts and are usually our biggest growth points can make all the difference. This shift can instantly turn a hostile universe into a friendly one.

A great question to ask ourselves when we are having a negative experience is, "What can I learn from this?" A question like this can quickly shift the experience away from "someone did this to me and it sucks" and into "this just happened and here's what I learned from it". This essentially shifts the experience from the negative end of the pole to the positive end.

Resistance doesn't help. We can take a cue from mother nature on this point . Can you imagine a tree holing on to its leaves in autumn; afraid that those were the last leaves it would ever have? How absurd? Growth is simply letting go of the old us so that the new us can become.

Growth is definitely a funny thing. I'm grateful for its constancy. And, I'm grateful for this approach that I have shared. I've noticed in using it that the positive growth points are more and more frequent. That's because when it comes to Life, our approach is 100% of the game.

What is Prosperity?

Prosperity means something different to everyone. To many, a bonus of a few hundred dollars is prosperity because it could be a game changer for them and their family. On the other hand, the idea of prosperity for the individual who deals with multi-million dollar transactions, is something altogether different. In any case, it's clear that prosperity is not in the material objects of our lives because owning a certain house or car or article of clothing does not make one prosperous.

We must each discover our own definition for the idea of prosperity. This discovery is a milestone because how can we have prosperity in our life until we even know what it is? I encourage you to ask yourself the following questions:

1) What is prosperity?

2) How can I create more of this in my life?

Write down your answers. Then really spend some time building on the answers you get for question 2 and work out a plan around it. This exercise can start you on a path of thought that will lead you exactly where you want to go in life.

Here's the YouTube link to a talk called Practical Prosperity that I delivered on the subject at a local Spiritual Community here in Asheville where I discuss the subject a little more in depth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKFxOH0KhWI

Enjoy!