On Living the Life You want
by
Joyce Davis
Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.”
–Charles M. Schulz
INTRODUCTION
Twenty-five years ago, on a beautiful spring afternoon, two young men graduated from the same University. They were much alike. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both—as young college graduates are—were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.
Recently these men returned to their college for their 25th reunion. Both were happily married. Both had two children. And both, it turned out, had gone to work for the same company after graduation, and were still there.
But there was a difference. One of the men was the manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.
What Made the Difference?
Let’s find out.
Have you ever seen a drawing where objects are hidden in the landscape? Maybe they are drawn in the trees or the clouds? They tell you there are 100 birds in that picture, but you see only one.
“Oh,” you say, “I found another one.” You look further. There’s another bird outlined within the branches of a tree, in the bushes, on the grass, in the sky. Your eyes have become cued to birds, and you soon see all 100.
You will find that, like being cued to the birds…
Once you know there are secrets to living the life you want, they will pop out like the once hidden birds.
You will see them written in antiquity, you will find them in sacred texts, and you will find them in snippets written on walls.
Here’s one snippet I found in a restaurant at The Pond’s Restaurant in Hilo Hawaii:
“The idea isn’t to arrive at the end of your life with a perfectly preserved body, but to slide into in chocolate in one hand, wine in the other yelling, ‘Whoopee! What a ride!”
Living in joy will bring about your desires faster than an eagle can fly off a cliff. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.
I feel the need for secrecy between you and me. Remember the old TV show “Get Smart,” with Don Adams playing the bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart? He had a cone of silence where he and his Chief shared confidential information. The trouble was his cone of silence didn’t work, and both Smart and the Chief needed to poke their heads out of the cone to hear each other.
Let’s imagine, instead, that we are in the closet sharing secrets, but when we open the door, all our secrets, like birds escaping, will fling themselves out the door and are swirling around in a kaleidoscope of color and light.
I feel that way right now.
I’m excited about implementing the secrets.
I’m excited about sharing them with you.
I do know that these secrets, like the kaleidoscope of birds, have been flying around the globe for millennia. However, people were looking down instead of up. I know this information will not be taken in by everybody. That’s the reason I felt the need for some secrecy. Some will say it’s woo, woo. I say, “It works if you work it.”
You could go to a seminar in Maui with Jack Canfield—love that guy, and that would be fun. It is four days at a luxury resort, days full of inspiration, the trouble is it costs $4,000.
First, read this little book, and you will be ahead of the pack.
The only thing I can promise here is that the secrets work if you work them.
Let us begin here with a Declaration of Independence:
Signed__________________________________________(your name)
This is a small book, seven secrets, seven chapters, 23 pages, 4,351 words, so we won’t be together long.
Many have known the secrets, Plato, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Sir Isaac Newton, Leonardo De Vinci. The Bible said. “He who has ears, let him hear,”
The ancients tried to tell us, but our ears were closed. Instead, we proclaimed it to be legend or mythology.
Napoleon Hill of Think and Grow Rich fame wrote of them in plain English. Clyde Bristol claimed the secrets in The Magic of Believing. Some treat this secret power as spiritual, others treat it as scientific, either way, the results are the same. It works if you work it!
THE SEVEN SECRETS:
Number One
BELIEVE
“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe he can achieve.”
–W. Clement Stone
One would think that if there are clear answers spelled out in bold relief, people would be clamoring for them. One would think, after spiritual teachings of millenniums saying the same thing, it would be proclaimed by all.
It isn’t.
Either people do not believe it, or they try, and it doesn’t work as they planned, so they give up.
The movie The Secret tried to tell it. What they didn’t mention was that there is a secret behind the secret. And that brings us to this number one on our list…
Believe
When people have a sense of their self-worth, when they have a sense of greatness in them, they value themselves, and they value others.
But wait, perhaps first, we ought to go back to the beginning and clear up what Zig Zigler calls, “Stinkin’ thinkin.”
We do not need to blackmail the Great Power of the Universe into doing our bidding, such as when we follow the maxim, “Do what you love, and money will follow.” Then say, “Okay, I’ve done what I love; now show me the money.” Besides, it doesn’t work.
Anger at the Universe for not giving us what we want means we have tightened up screwed ourselves down and restricted the flow. Instead, we need to allow the sweet scent of belief to flow over us like the fragrance of a fresh pine forest.
One time I watched an interview on the TV show “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” where James Lipton interviewed John Travolta. Travolta said he was so sure of his talent that when the producers told him he couldn’t act, he said, “They’re nuts.”
Travolta’s parents had fostered this belief in him. Travolta said when he took out the garbage, his parents would say, “Look at that boy. Isn’t he brilliant?” He would perform some act, and they would clap and praise. He went out into the world, believing he could do it.
Believing is walking, talking, and acting like the person you project yourself to be, believe you have it already. Act as though you are already the person you desire to be.
If your mind is filled with fear and doubt, do not harangue yourself, instead focus and say, over and over, a thousand times if necessary,
“My prosperity is flowing into me and through me right now.”
Not long ago, I was at the beach, playing in the sand with my three-year-old grandson. We dug a hole, and then my grandson would grab his mother’s hand, and they would run to the water, fill the bucket, heft it back, and pour it into the hole. Instead, I figured, if we moved closer to the water, we could dig a trench. When the surf rolled in, it would fill the channel, and the water would flow into the hole.
It worked!
This could work with money or any of the many things you choose to come into your life. Instead of us chasing after it, move close to the source, dig a trench, and allow the river of abundance to flow to us.
It involves changing our thinking.
Bristol writes that in the depression years, he saw suggestive forces working overtime. Day after day, the populace heard such expressions as “Times are hard,” “Business is poor.” “The banks are failing.” “Prosperity hasn’t got a chance.”
Hundreds, yes, thousands of strong-willed men went down under the constant hammering.
And our desires, always sensitive, run for cover when fear suggestions begin to circulate.
Bristol writes that “There will never be another business depression if people generally realize that it is with their own fear thoughts that they literally create hard times.”
They think hard times, and hard times follow.
So it is with wars. “When peoples of the world stop thinking about depressions and conflicts, they will become non-existent.”
Everybody wants something. Maybe it’s being a millionaire. Perhaps it’s health, happiness, a loving relationship, a lover, sex, spirituality, a trip around the world, a new car, relief from anxiety, a joyful spirit.
The Hawaiians have a process called Ho’oponono. It is a healing process, a clearing, a chant that says, “I’m sorry, please forgive me. I love you.” This does not have to be directed to any person. It merely is digging the trench so the river of abundance can flow to us.
I am simplifying this, yes. I do not want to make it hard. I believe that both you and I are people of action, and it doesn’t have to be hard.
I am just telling you. There are secrets, and belief is magic.
There are limiting beliefs too. We can go to therapy for 20 years to clear those limiting belief systems—you know what I’m talking about, the old “I’m not good enough” syndrome. “I’m too fat, too skinny, too tall, too short, I don’t know the right people, I’m not smart enough, talented enough.” Oh, I could go on and on, but I won’t. Instead, we can sit down, write out our desires, and begin the process of believing.
Writing down an idea or a problem takes it out of our mind and puts it out into the universe where it can draw unconscious forces into play. Belief in one’s own good changes the tempo of the mind, and like a magnet, it draws subconscious forces into play.
We can call this power of belief an emotion, a spiritual force, or a type of electrical vibration. Whatever it is, it is a force that brings outstanding results. It sets the law of attraction into being. And it is through this power that miracles happen.
In The Magic of Believing, Claude Bristol writes of an interview with Angelina Lansbury—you may remember her from the TV show “Murder She Wrote.” During a rest interval in Hollywood, Lansbury launched upon one of her favorite themes—belief in her own destiny. “Ah,” she said, “I think perhaps I’ve phrased it badly. I don’t mean anything magical or occult. Perhaps faith in the power of the subconscious mind would be a better way of saying it.”
“How do you go about tapping your subconscious mind?” the interviewer asked.
“Heavens! I don’t want to sound stuffy or high-brow, but it’s really awfully simple. If you tell yourself over and over again that there’s no limit to the creative power within you, that’s about all there is to it. Honestly, I believe that’s true. Whatever intelligence or creative force, or whatever it is, that resides in the world is like…”
She waved a strong, beautiful hand expressively…“oh, like light or air, or something of that sort. It doesn’t belong to me, especially. It’s there to be tapped and expressed by anyone who knows how to get at it.
“This isn’t a cut-and-dried formula for success by any means,’ Lansbury went on to explain, “It doesn’t let you off hard work. You have to keep plugging like mad, perfecting whatever kind of expression you’ve got, constantly adding to your skill. So that when the chance for self-expression does come…you have the tools for it to work with, catch on?”
And Angelia Lansbury at age 92 was performing on Broadway.
Number Two
DREAM
“What is the use of living if it not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone.”
—Winston Churchill
“In the beginning was the word.” the writer of Genesis declared. But before the word, came the thought, a dream—I will make a world…
To dream means to have an idea, a desire, a wish, a direction. What is our reason for life? Why did we come to this earthly plane? Was it by accident or plan? Whatever it was, I do not think we came here to be slaves—to the system, to money, to having someone tell us how to be, do or have.
We came here to unfold into our magnificence. The world doesn’t want you to know this. Fearful people are controllable, and we live in a fear-based culture. Here we are stating, emphatically, that our purpose is not to be sniveling little beings in a constant state of fear or lack. We came here to live life and to live it abundantly.
So have your dreams, as many as you can, dreams make you feel fantastic, and in wonderment are things created. Go to that no-time place where dreams reside, where hopes flourish, and where everything is possible.
Begin with dream number one, focus on it, believe it, pursue it, make it a reality. It belongs to you, remember.
Goals are essential here, too, for we need to have a starting place. Books have been written on goals, how to have them, how to implement them, and why they are necessary, but I’m not writing a big long fill-the-pages book here. I want to get to the point, for I have heard that the Great Force of the Universe rewards action.
Regarding dreams: If you don’t get up in the morning anxious to get on with your project, your dream isn’t big enough. I’ve heard it said that you will never get it done, and you can’t do it wrong. Walt Disney had a dream bigger than he was. He envisioned his Florida Disney World, and he began to build it. He never saw it completed. He said Disneyland would never be finished as long as there is imagination.
So, have as many dreams as you can. There is no limit here. We are talking about abundance. And if you have any qualms about asking for money—drop them. You deserve to be rich, happy, fulfilled, loved, and all the good things life has to offer.
If you have an idea lurking from some distant past that asking for money is greedy, or that you do not deserve it, drop it. Poverty never serves anyone, and the idea that there is not enough to go around is a fallacy perpetrated on the innocent.
Number Three
ASK
“Ask, and you shall receive, seek, and you shall find, knock, and it shall be opened to you.”
–Jesus
How many times have we read or heard that quote?
Did you believe it?
It is rather like those yellow Post-It slips of paper that we put up on our walls, our computer, or our mirror. After a while, we become so numbed to seeing those little yellow slips that they become invisible.
That’s the way it has been with these secrets.
To reiterate what we have covered so far: BELIEVE with all your soul and might that you deserve an abundant life. Second, have the DREAM—something to believe in.
What do you want? What are your goals? ASK for what you want.
Asking is putting in an order. Genies do sit around waiting to be asked. I don’t know why they don’t read our minds and give us what we want. It is the nature of Genies, I suppose. Perhaps they think if we don’t ask for our dreams, we aren’t that attached to them.
So ASK, and then emphatically BELIEVE that it is so.
There is a story of two men who rented a hotel room. It was a standard storage room, but the hotel, when crowded, used it as a bedroom. During the night, one of the men complained of a lack of air. He arose and groped through the dark to what he thought was the window. He couldn’t open it, so he used his shoe and knocked out the pane of glass. The two men slept comfortably for the rest of the night. Come morning, they discovered that the window was intact. What the man had smashed was the glass closet door.
The teacher Abraham spends an enormous amount of time attempting to get people to a place where they can first ASK, and secondly allow themselves to receive. Ester and Jerry Hick’s book, Ask, and it is Given, has reached best-seller status. In it, using Abraham as a guide, Hicks states that it is not about controlling thoughts, it is about guiding them. There seems to be a phenomenon that if we ask—let’s say, for a red truck and then believe that having a red truck is not possible, the second thought cancels out the first. I don’t like it either, but there you have it.
Abraham says the process is an easy one. Ask (your job). It is given (not your job). Receive (your job).
Number Four
FOCUS
“Whatever we fix our thoughts upon or steadily focus our imagination
upon, that is what we will attract. This is no mere play of words.”
–Claude Bristol
We have an internal barometer. I noticed mine a moment ago when I read something about poverty, and my heart sank. This is fear clouding the screen of our subconscious. Our subconscious believes in the goodness of things, it runs our intuition, it is the “Still small voice within,” it guides us in times of trouble, it never sleeps, and its power is unfathomable.
We all create, but we do not always deliberately create. Yesterday my daughter said, “It’s the believing part that is tricky.” Yes, it is, that is the reason I put it first on the list.
Here we do not want to wait for events to happen to us, but to bring them to fruition. In The Book of Secrets, Deepak Chopra makes a startling proclamation:“It is the wise person who knows God is there to do our bidding, not the other way around.”
That brings us back to the subconscious mind again.
Lansbury stated it eloquently, “It’s there, to be tapped and expressed by anyone who knows how to get at it,”
I learned a fabulous truth about focus from my horse. It appeared that she was connected to me somehow in consciousness. She was either reading my mind or somehow connected to my focus. While on her back, if I focused on an object ahead, let’s say a fence post for they were the easiest. I would stare straight ahead, focus on the fence post, not use reins, or any other cues on my horse, and she would go straight to that post.
I have heard of pilots seemingly not using the control stick to guide their planes, and the plane would go where they were focused. There might be some subtitle movements of the body that we are not aware of, it does not matter, it works if you work it. Golfers focus on the spot they want their ball to go. You have seen basketball players standing ready for the free shot, and concentrate intently. We do not just haphazardly hit a ball and expect a hole in one. We focus.
It is the same with our dreams. This is not “wishful thinking,” wishful thinking has no power behind it.
When you focus, you aim for the target. You are not distracted by someone selling cold drinks standing beside you. You do not turn your attention to a couple making out on the bleachers. If you want to hit the target, you aim.
In the process of focus, we program our subconscious to follow our directive. We know it works on a small scale, such as finding parking places, or that last seat in the theater, those sorts of things, and it will work on the big stuff too. We just have to believe and know that the great Force of the Universe doesn’t care how many zeroes you put after that money number you stated you want to receive.
“About 90 percent of the things in our lives are right, and 10 percent are wrong. If we want to be happy, all we have to do is concentrate on the 90 percent and ignore the 10 percent that are wrong.”
–Dale Carnegie
Affirmation: “I do have a subconscious that is working for me. I am a wonderful person. It is the Father’s great pleasure to give me the Kingdom. All good fortune is flowing into me now.”
Number Five
PASSION
In the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, the old man tells the shepherd boy: “To realize one’s personal legend is a person’s only obligation. And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it.”
I suggest writing down your desires and put them into the presence of Mystical Intelligence. About this Mystical Intelligence—we don’t work it, it works for us.
And it is with passion that it works.
If you do not have a burning desire for your dream, you probably will not stick it out when times get tough, and they will get tough sometimes. (If it were easy, everybody would do it.) That is where passion will carry us through.
I don’t want to mislead you. When the messenger of misery comes, we often want to give up, yet think of all those people who love what they do and have so much fun doing it. For those people, their work is play. They say, ‘I would do this even if I wasn’t getting paid for it.” Those people have passion, and they stuck with it when times were tough.
Some think that the Beetles were an overnight success. For the Americans, the Beatles appeared to jump from Liverpool to stardom. Author Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers, explains that the band’s earlier gigs were performing near the military bases in Hamburg, Germany. The played eight hours a day, seven days a week, for eighteen months. Now that takes passion and perseverance, and it paid off.
Walt Disney filed for bankruptcy seven times, went bankrupt once, yet look at what he achieved.
I mention books often, for there we can avail ourselves of the wisdom of the ages. (If you don’t read, you won’t be reading this) Since we don’t have elders telling these secrets as we sit around campfires, we rely on books. Reading allows us to stand on the shoulders of those who went before. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, it’s been done. We don’t have the time or inclination to learn all our skills from experience. In college, we learned what others placed before us. (Good, bad, or indifferent.) It doesn’t matter what the book is about, fiction, biography, how-to’s, history or science, it is a rare book that doesn’t contain an idea useful in your own work.
“If you believe yourself worthy of the thing you fought so hard to get, then you become an instrument of God,” wrote Paulo Coelho, “you help the soul of the World, and you understand why you are here.”
Number Six
RECEIVE
“Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss. Ask then, from your heart, and it shall be given.” (Bible)
Never forget that every world-changing event or invention was once considered impossible.
“E Laka I ka Loa’a, is a line a Hawaiian chant that means to “Immerse yourself in the river of opulence.”
And now, twenty-eight years after a series of books called The Masters of the Far East by Baird T. Spalding were placed in my hands, I am reading them. They say the same as the teacher Abraham has been saying. There is a LAW OF ATTRACTION, and they have discovered how it works.
When we ask for a thing, we must be at-one-with the thing we ask for, not the lack of it.
Here is the science of creation at its best: You are standing on the brink of achieving your dreams, you know what you want, you are feeling anticipation, eager for the next step, not feeling unworthy or impatient, just knowing that it will be so. And so, it is
Number Seven
SAY THANK YOU
When you’ve done the work, say thank you.
When The Great Power of the Universe has given you your heart’s desire, say thank you.
The pages of this book went by too fast for me. I am still incorporating what is written here. It is incredulous how this book kept surfacing on my desk, “Look at me,” it said.
You know what they say, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
Guess I was the student, and I was ready.
What I found was a print-out copy, but the file was not in my computer nor my laptop. It wasn’t in The Book, an external storage unit, nor in my usual flash-drive.
I decided to re-type it, and then the universe gave it to me. I found it on an old flash drive I keep stored in a little tin box.
I was jazzed.
“When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself.
–Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief
The last line of the Hawaiian chant says Me ka mahalo ibi—”Give respectful thanks.”
And now, I thank you for reading this.
May all your dreams come true. May you achieve your heart’s desire. May you be forever grateful.
See you at the top.
Joyce
Thank You.