Creating a Better Life

Abraham on Martin Luther King

This video needs no commentary… except to say that it’s a beautiful way to handle any dream, not just King’s.

Don’t Dig Up Your Bamboo Plant!

While listening to the Zig Ziglar “Inspiring Words of Encouragement” podcast the other day, I came across a story he told about the bamboo plant (listen to “The Power of Self Talk” dated 6/11/07).

Apparently, after it’s planted, a bamboo plant can take years to being to show any signs of growth above ground. It needs to be cared for and watered during these years, but no evidence of it’s growth witll become apparent for a long, long time.

But once it pokes itself above the ground… look out! It soon becomes one of the tallest and strongest plants in existence.

Human beings work in much the same way.

Unfortunately, when a person first learns about and accepts ideas like the Law of Attraction or Deliberate Creation, it seems to them that once they start thinking positively all good things will start to come to them.

But all that’s happened at this point is a seed has been planted.

And for some of us, that seed has been planted in a garden that’s a real mess!

I know it was for me.

And I also know that it may take years for that seed to fully take root before any real evidence begins to poke it’s head above ground.

Or it could be tomorrow.

Either way is OK. I’m not going anywhere, so there’s no reason to go digging up these beliefs that are serving me so well in my daily life just because I’m not seeing the full blown shoots that I’d like to.

Do you want to dig up your goals, your plans, and your dreams because you haven’t yet seen any evidence of their manifestation?

Or do you want to continue to water them, to feed them, to work on them below the surface?

I don’t care if you forgot to water them yesterday, or for a week, or even if it’s been years since you’ve given them any care.

Our dreams don’t die, no matter how long they’ve been neglected.

Start watering them again… now.

And then be patient.

Keep on taking care of them.

The outside evidence will come.

Just remember the bamboo plant when you start thinking that nothing’s going on.

Because there’s one thing I can guarantee:

If you are doing the watering, then your dreams are doing their growing.

My Opi (Finally!)

I never thought the day would come… but I’ve finally been able to sit down and answer Terry Starbucker’s tag.

April started this one - she called it the “Opi”, based on the Greek word “opiso”, which loosely means “Future You.”

So here goes:

My Future Self

I’m still blogging regularly. My books are doing well in sales, and people and organizations have started asking me to do speaking engagements. I’m still no great orator, but I do get by better than I could in the past.

Tracy and I have moved to a quiet, comfortable home by the water. We are living in an area where it stays cool and rains frequently, the Northwest US most likely. Our dog probably loves it more than we do… she can finally run free by the water and through the trees like she is meant to.

We are financially independent, living off of our investments, blog income, and book sales, which allows us to spend our days together, either at home with me writing and her doing her thing, or out and about just taking in the beauty and wonder of life. We are truly living our dream, together.

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Short and sweet, but powerful. Getting a picture in our minds of what we want and where we want to be points us in the right direction - but we need to take action if we want to get there.

I’d highly suggest you try this exercise, either publicly on your blog, in the comments, or privately. The benefit of knowing where you are going, even if you don’t yet know how you will get there (book sales? investments???) will bring you both a sense of peace and determination that you may have never had before.

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This may be an old meme, but let’s see… Karen, Rick, Nneka, Mike, and Tina - would you like to tell us about your “Opie?”

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Discuss this post at Personal Development Partners