Time Warp…..Living in Dual Universes

Image via Wikipedia

Wow….I can’t believe how long it has actually been since I wrote my last blog, getting lost in a time warp wasn’t what I expected to happen last summer when I embarked on all out massive action to fix the issues in my life.  The thing I love most about my life is discovering everything the Universe and Life have to offer.  I love stretching the boundaries of time and space, finding out what is possible and finding out that very little in life is impossible.   Today’s entry is kind of warning about trying to stretch time too far while trying to create the life of your dreams.

Last summer and late fall I took on three full time jobs that left me with next to zero time for sleep.  I literally worked around the clock 7 days a week, catching no more than 3 to 4 hours of sleep per day.  It seemed to work pretty well with no ill effects for about 4 months, but in late January, I went from consciously creating what I wanted in life to just going through the motions, I had deprived myself of time to think and because I live by “Thoughts become things”, I no longer had time for my thoughts to become reality.  When I was at each of my jobs, I seemed to perform just fine, pretty much like a robot going through the motions, in between jobs I was dead tired and just plain irritable, yet when I arrived at the next job I became energized and ready to go.  That’s where the time warp stuff comes in, I had replaced valuable and extremely important dream time (unconscious, sleeping dream time) with an overnight job.  In the light of day, the overnight job and all that happened overnight felt like a dream, it felt like I never really was at that job and it really was just a dream.   Guess what ?  Replacing your valuable dream time with a remote control 3rd shift job is not a productive way to create the life of your dreams if it steals your real, unconscious dream time from you.

I find valuable lessons in everything that happens in my life, and the experiment of the past six months has taught me that while it is possible to exist on little or no sleep it blurs time and space and steals the opportunity from you to organize your life and create the things you want in your life.  The other and more painful thing I discovered is that an existence of this type steals  valuable time from your important personal relationships, and disrupts the connections with those closest to you.  So while it was an interesting and valuable experiment, it was not sustainable long term if I was going to get back to the place where I was firing on all cylinders and living the life of my real dreams.

While I was lost in the time warp, the Universe kept on working and helped me land in a place that is what I had dreamed of the last time I was firing on all cylinders.  While moving through this time warp, I landed  exactly where I wanted, I have inserted myself into the career that was my life long dream, with a company that is exactly what I dreamed of in all regards, from the management, ownership, compensation program and industry.  As a matter of fact, I recently spent a day in St. Cloud with the owner of the company I work for and his son who manages the sales team.  As I sat in the meeting and listened to them talk about their vision for the company, the new services we were adding, the sales approach with prospects, etc.  I had to pinch myself to make sure I was awake, it was as if they had performed Spock‘s Vulcan mind meld to find out what I was thinking would make their company perfect for me.  This truly is the opportunity, company and industry I have spent my whole life dreaming about and now that it’s here I am throwing everything I have at it.   I still have a lot of personal challenges to deal with from the economic melt down of the past few years but the path is now clear to get back in that place I call “Groovin”.

So it really feels like I have been living in two different Universes, the Universe of my dreams and the remote control Universe where I just go through the motions in interesting, fun jobs but not the career that I have now found.  It is amazing how thoughts and dreams do come true, and how God and special people are working behind the scenes on your behalf.  I don’t think it is any coincidence that I found the opportunity of my dreams and on Friday of this week, a special lunch was set up for me with someone I have wanted to connect with my whole life, and while it seemed like it would be impossible and that the time would never come, receiving an incredible text message from a very special person last Sunday confirmed the time had arrived.  Having faith and believing always works, it may not happen as quickly as you would like but when the time comes, it seems as if it was instantaneous.  Which always reminds me of what Wayner Dyer says   “Infinite patience brings immediate results”, thing about that one, it really works and has served me well. 

So after not blogging for a while I feel like I have just been rambling again, but if I can offer any advice today, it is to make sure you don’t let yourself fall into the time warp.  Don’t ever give up your personal dream time, all those experts are right you really do need a good night’s sleep and not just for your physical health but more importantly for the health of your life’s dreams and for time to create the life of your dreams.  Over the years, I have used a technique that has always worked for me and always brought me what I wanted and needed in my life.   Saying a prayer in the form of a conversation with God about your dreams and desires right before going to bed is the first part of this technique.   When I was 12 years old, there was nothing I wanted more than to play baseball and hit like my favorite baseball player Rod Carew.  I hadn’t done much praying in my life at that point but when I started out the season as a 12 year old in the Babe Ruth league with no hits in the first 4 games, I turned to God, I prayed every night and went to Church on Sunday and focused my thoughts on hitting while sitting in Church.  Within a week of starting to pray, I went 4 for 4 in a game, 4 hits that were solid line drives, that season I went on to hit .675, about 300 points higher than Rod Carew hit that year.  I have been a true believer in prayer ever since.  The other part of my technique is writing what I want in my life down on paper which I also review every night before going to bed.  Sometimes I write things down, misplace the notebook I wrote it in and find it years later, only to discover that everything I wrote down came to be.  Now that I am emerging from the Time warp, I am focused again on my prayer and my notebook of dreams.  

I spent a lot of time driving the past few weeks which has given me quiet time alone to think, dream and analyze my life and the challenges of the last few years.  Two things popped into my head, the Time Warp that I wrote about today and Daydreaming.   In regards to Daydreaming, I thought about the power of Daydreaming and how the only time I got in trouble in school was all the times I got caught daydreaming.   Somehow, the teachers had it all wrong, Daydreaming is good, not bad.   As a matter of fact, if our schools were truly enlightened they would teach kids how to daydream and set aside time each day specifically for daydreaming.  More on daydreaming in my next blog entry, which I know will be soon, I also intend to get back to writing regular entries in my blog again as there is nothing better for your soul and dreams than writing about your thoughts.   Sweet Dreams to you !

Related Articles

• Is Daydreaming Bad for You? (healthymemory.wordpress.com)
• Time Warp (preshrunk.org)
• Dreams, daydreams, and nightmares (lindacassidylewis.com)
• Dreams … They are changing? (oriondiamond.wordpress.com)
• The history time warp (campjack.wordpress.com)
• Dream Time at New Year (mockingbirdsatmidnight.wordpress.com)
• Living in a Dream World: The Role of Daydreaming in Problem-Solving and Creativity (preview) (scientificamerican.com)
• Time Warp (susanalley.wordpress.com)
• Wake Up: Your Dreams Need a Reality Check… (eof737.wordpress.com)

Love Train

Image by Orangeadnan via Flickr

The Beatles had it right…”All you need is Love” !  I will admit that I didn’t know what this meant back in the 60’s when I was in grade school but I finally understand that “Love” really is all you need to accomplish anything you want in your life.  1967 was the famous Summer of Love and I was definitely in love, with a 1967 Red Mustang , to this day that is my dream car and was the first time I “loved something”.  Love was always a difficult word to define, understand, experience or use but over time I finally get it.

Love isn’t something that just happens, I don’t think love is something that happens to you, I believe Love is something you create.  Love is a choice, it is a decision you make in your life but once you understand it’s power and use it the right way it can deliver anything and everything you could ever imagine.  One thing I still don’t quite understand is accepting Love from others.  It is one thing to Love someone or something or some activity it is another thing to feel the Love someone else.  I am not sure I can define or describe that kind of Love, I am not saying that people like my family don’t Love me, but I am not sure feeling the Love of someone else for you is the same as Loving that person and giving them your Love.  You see Love isn’t about being loved, it is about Loving someone or something.

Let me explain where I am going with this and why I feel like I finally “Get it”.   I have embarked on a new career in a field I absolutely, positively Love.  My new career is selling Cinema Ads, the kind that run on the screen before the main movie starts.  My job involves going door to door, cold calling on businesses of all sizes most of which have “No Solicitors” signs posted on their doors.  There was a time in my life that this would have scared the hell out of me and I can honestly say it would still scare the hell out of me if I didn’t Love my product, Love my company and Love my prospects, yes I said Love my prospects !.   I have spent the last few weeks knocking on at least 20 doors a day and with only a couple of exceptions, everyone has greeted me kindly and only once was I told I should have read the sign on the door about soliciting.  I truly believe that since I have come to understand the true meaning of Love, it has served me well.  I know that if I didn’t go into each business I call on thinking I was going to Love the people and Love handling their advertising, I wouldn’t have been greeted so kindly.  I also know that Loving my job, every part of my job, makes everything go better, I know that without this Love for my career, I wouldn’t be as happy as I am sitting in this hotel by myself tonight.

Love can serve you in many ways.  One of the things I am working very hard on is using Love in every portion of my life no matter what the situation is.  When my son or daughter call me  in the middle of an important meeting with an urgent message which turns out to be they need money to buy gas to go some place fun, I pause and think what Love means in this situation, does it mean be kind or get angry for the interruption ?  it always, means to be kind.  To me that is the definition of “tough love“, deciding to be kind when it is really tough to be kind.  When I am in a tough situation and trying to negotiate with a mortgage company, a creditor or anyone that isn’t exactly trying to be your friend, I have recently taken the approach that I am going to send my Love to the person I am talking to and my experience so far is that without fail, the Love comes back to you in the form of the result you had hoped for.

April 26th, 1980 was an incredible day, that was the day I married Suanne Fodstad but it was also the day I really listened and took to heart 1 Corinthians 13 from the Bible.  This passage is in my opinion the best definition of Love there ever was and as I have re-read it the past couple of days, it is truly amazing to me how it applies to everything I have been doing to turn my life around and get back on track.  If you have never read this passage or have forgotten what it says it is worth re-printing here for your review:

1 Corinthians 13

¹ If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Faith, Hope and Love….. there it is.  Can you see what I mean about how this can apply to every area of your life.  Just in the way you do business or deal with others, if you do it with Love you cannot fail.  A dear friend of mine from High School sent me a great power point presentation today called “Life on a Train’, I don’t think she had any idea how much I love trains, and love riding them but this presentation she sent me compared Life to a long train ride and it was so right on, it was just another one of those moments where the light clicked again and everything in my life has started to make sense.  That power point presentation got me thinking about Love and what it has meant to me recently as I have tried to apply it to everything I do.  Then that mental Juke Box of mine picked up Love message and combined it with the train analogy from the power point and wouldn’t you know it, it flipped on the turntable in my head and started playing the O’Jay’s classic  “Love Train”  which led to me writing about Love today.   So let me leave you with the words of the O’Jay’s  Start a Love Train  and Please don’t miss this train at the station, because if you do, I feel sorry, sorry you. Join hands Start a Love Train, Love Train….it is all you will ever need to get everything you want in life…..I love you !

Related Articles

• Love is the Greatest (lovemeanyway.wordpress.com)
• 1 Corinthians 13 (asorensen.wordpress.com)
• What is Love? (marysaggies.blogspot.com)

Creating Your Own Reality

Image via Wikipedia

It used to bother me when people would say things like “Tim is in a world all to himself” or “Tim lives in a fantasy world” or “He’s always so lucky, but some day his luck will change”.   Up until the point those comments started bothering me, I really did live in a fantasy world and in my fantasy world every fantasy I dreamed came true starting in High School.  You see everything in my life was created in a thought or a dream so when I had great thoughts and great dreams that is exactly what my world was made of, when I started listening to people make comments like I mentioned earlier, I started thinking that maybe they were right, the minute I started thinking that way, I got exactly what I was thinking of.

I have spent alot of time analyzing my 51 years of life here on Planet Earth, especially with the trials and tribulations of the past three years.  I had to find out why 48 years were about as perfect as a life could be and then the last 3 years were as ugly as life could be.  I say ugly only because they were so dramatically different then the first 48, while it wasn’t great it was a lesson I needed to remind me about how powerful our thoughts are and why it is so important to create your life as you want it and not by what others may think is right for you.

So let me tell you about the reality I created the last 51 years, including the last three which were also my creation.  Growing up in Crystal, Minnesota I was always fascinated with all the things you could do in life, I wanted to experience everything.  In the fourth grade our class took a field trip to the North Hennepin Post Newspaper, I thought the News paper business was really cool after that visit, so I went home and started my own neighborhood newspaper.  The first paper I created was on a manual typewriter with 5 pages of carbon paper(for those who don’t remember, carbon paper was something you could put between two pages of paper and make a copy of the first by either pressing hard with a pen or typing), because I was trying to make so many copies, my fingers got very sore from trying to slam down the keys so it would go through all 5 copies.   Later, I graduated to a printing press that I found in the Montgomery Ward catalog.  I remember sitting in front of the TV with a TV tray watching the Batman TV show and setting type letter by letter in my little printing press.  It was a fun little operation and I had several subscribers both in the neighborhood and at school who were willing to pay 5 cents a copy.

My next dream come true was when I decided after spending time growing up at the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale it was time to open my own theater.  I loved the theater business from time my mother started working at the Terrace when I was 2 years old.  I was at the Terrace alot and took my time to learn how they did everything including getting to spend time with the Union Projectionist in the projection booth learning how to run the projectors.  So in the 5th grade, I opened the Hollywood Chief Theater in my basement showing silent films I took out at the public library on my Super 8 projector.  This venture was so succesful that I opened a second theater in my backyard, called the “Bike-In” theater which was created by stringing a large white sheet between two trees and pointing the projector out the back window of our house. 

Moving on to 6th grade, I decided that it was time to get with the latest technology after seeing my favorite disc jockey from my favorite radio station at the State Fair broadcasting live.  You guessed it, I signed on my own radio station WTIM using at first a CB radio and broadcasting the latest top 40 hits so all the kids in the neighborhood could hear them on their walkie talkies.  Later that same year, I found a kit at an electronics store called Lafayette Electronics for an AM Transmitter so I could broadcast on real radio.  The kit was very specific that your antenna should not exceed the 12 inches of wire that came with the kit, well I would have no part of that because I needed the whole neighborhood to hear me so I strung a 50 ft antenna from my house to the highest point I could climb to in one of the trees in our backyard.  I guess this radio empire was the beginning of my mini-media empire, because the next thing I did was buy an FM transmitting microphone from Radio Shack, now I was big time, AM and FM.  But that was just the start, 8-track tape players were all the rage and I was fortunate enough to get an 8-track tape recorder for Christmas that year which led the way for me to open up yet another business I called Sound Dynamics.  Today that business would be highly illegal and would be called Tim’s Pirate music company, I had no idea that I was pirating music by buying a vinyl album, recording it to 8 track and then selling to my friends.  I did quite well with this business adding cassette tapes to my 8 tracks.  So by the time I had graduated 6th grade I was operating 2 radio stations, 2 movie theaters and a record company.

I went to Hosterman Junior High in New Hope Minnesota for my next three years of school.  Alpine skiing was huge back in the 70’s and I loved watching the Olympics and the coverage of skiing including the local ski show hosted by local weatherman Barry Zevan.  I went skiing for my first time in 7th grade and by the end of the first day, I was skiing about as good as most of the people on the hill at Snowcrest ski area in Somerset, Wisconsin.  My dream was to become a ski racer and have all the girls admire me especially petite blondes which I decided was what would be the perfect fit for me.  At that time, Cooper High School had a ski racing team , the High School was for grades 10 to 12 while the junior high was 7 to 9.  I  heard that you could be on the High School ski team if you were good enough in 9th grade so I convinced my friend Steve Banker to try out for the team with me.  Steve and I had skied together quite a bit with the boy scouts, so what the heck, I thought we should give it a try.  And just as I had dreamed it, Steve and I made the ski team as 9th graders and by the time we were in 10th grade we were co-captains of the Cooper High School ski team.  Now you tell me that you can’t create exactly what you want.  I went from never having skied to the captain of the High School team, my first year in High School, pretty powerful life creating powers I had and you have as well.

While I loved sports, the media bug was still in my system so I started a film company to make ski movies.  I learned to ski backwards so I could ski down and look up the hill to film my friends.  I learned how to edit film, sync sound from a cassette recorder and eventually made 3 feature length Super 8 films with sound.  My friends hated my new film company because we would take a trip to Montana or Colorado to ski and I would spend half the time making them film me or letting me film them crashing off jumps and cliffs.  It was quite the deal for a junior high kid and it was exactly as I dreamed it would be.

Once I made it to Cooper High School my thoughts turned to having the greatest High School experience ever.  My favorite TV show was always “Leave it to Beaver” and I always wanted to be just like Wally, so while I continued to ski race, my real passion was Baseball, Blondes and good grades while having the greatest high school experience ever.  I had always loved baseball but was never able to keep up with the star athletes from my junior high days but after buying a book called “Show the Coach” and attending a summer of Baseball Camp, I was the starting 3rd baseman for the Cooper High Junior Varsity team and wouldn’t you know it just as I had dreamed not only was I the starting 3rd baseman but I had the perfect coach in Ted Leuer, who recognized how much attention I paid to playing the game right.  For the next 3 years in high school and 1 year of college I played and enjoyed baseball more than I had ever dreamed of.  But the point is I dreamed it and knew it would happen exactly the way I wanted it to happen and it did.

As for the Blonde, my bride of 30 years plus walked into the Terrace Theater in the Summer of 1974 and I saw the vision of the woman I had always dreamed of.  It took me almost a year to convince her to go out with me but just as I had dreamed and thought about constantly, we went out for 5 years and got married and moved to South Dakota where I had the job I had been dreaming of, I was morning disc jockey and Basketball Color announcer for the radio station.  I was living the dream and things only got better.   I dreamed of waiting about 8 years to have kids and knew that I wanted 1 son and 1 daughter which is exactly what we ended up with.   I won’t bore you with all the details but for the next 20 years, I got the houses I dreamed of, the cars I dreamed, travelled all over the world to every place I ever wanted to go, built multiple companies that I had dreamed of.  I even played a half season of 40 plus baseball.  During those amazing 48 years, I can’t tell you how many times things would happen exactly as I had dreamed they would or thought they would.

So what about the last three years ?  Well, I dreamed about those as well.  Unfortunately, I forgot how powerful my dreams and thoughts were.  I can tell you when it all started, I had paid off everything, I had zero debt, I had a ton of money in the bank, things were going incredible.  I can actually remember the exact moment that my thoughts changed to thoughts of what has happened the last three years.   I was on a Northwest Airlines flight flying from Minneapolis to San Francisco, sitting in First Class enjoying my status and thinking about how fortunate I was to have had all my dreams come true, then a thought popped into my head, a thought like I had never had in my whole life, “What if I lost it all ?” started going through my mind, which was something I never, ever would have even considered.  Things got weird after that thought popped into my mind, about an hour out of San Francisco, the Captain came on the PA system to tell us that the plane had hydraulic problems and we were going to have to make an emergency landing.  The minute I heard that, the thoughts of doom and disaster just got worse.  We dumped fuel and as we landed in San Francisco, fire trucks raced down the runway beside us.  The Captain had done an incredible job of landing the plane and nothing serious happened to anyone but my thoughts of loss grew stronger each day after that event.   As time went on, I noticed I had started to worry about crazy things like the election between Bush and Gore, my thoughts of impending disaster continued to grow leading up to the morning of September 11, 2001 as I sit in my home gym riding my Lifecycle watching Good Morning America as I saw the second plane, crash live on TV into the World Trade Center everything changed and for some reason from that day forward I was never able to get 100% back in the groove.   I had thoughts of my business failing, of losing my home ,of losing my cars and losing everything I had worked for my entire life.  It was at this time that I should have thrown myself into the good stuff like I have for the past 6 months.  I had created my own reality and what I had worried about starting in 2001 came to pass in 2009.  Talk about a wake up call !   Thoughts really do become things and that is why it is so important to choose them carefully.

Today,  I am seeing signs of the thoughts I had six months ago coming true, I dreamed of the perfect opportunities coming my way and sure enough they are, on a daily basis.  But the most important thing I have learned through all of this is that we really do create everything that happens in our lives.  It is easy to create exactly the life you want and it is just as easy to create exactly the life you don’t want.  It’s your choice, choose the good stuff or worry about the bad stuff.  I can tell you I am done with the bad stuff and totally focused on the good stuff including getting in the best physical shape of my life.  It’s kind of funny on this physical shape thing because, I have watched what I have eaten in the past in many attempts to lose some weight but for some reason over the past 9 years it never worked well.  Now that I am back in the “Groove”,  40 pounds has effortlessly dropped from my body primarily because I knew it would and visualized myself being in the best shape of my life for the 35th Class reunion of Cooper High School Class of 1977.  I will have a lot more to report on creating the life I have always wanted to live and boy do I intend to live, for at least another 70 years !  I hope you will consider my story and take some time to thing about the life you want for yourself, think about the good stuff and don’t ever, ever worry about anything bad.  Speaking of the Cooper High School Class of 1977, it was the greatest group of people I have ever met, and I spent most of my life telling the world about these special people.  I know many of them, maybe without knowing it have created exactly the lives they have wanted.  A few worried about things they shouldn’t have and have had to deal with the reality that brought them but I hope they have found what I have in the power of creating your own reality through visualizing the good stuff.  Thanks for spending a few minutes with me, you know I have been thinking of you.

Related Articles

• 10 reviews of 8 track tapes (rateitall.com)
• How Ford Helped Invent The 8-Track [Car Tech] (jalopnik.com)
• Forget Nostalgia, Success is about the Future – U.S. News vs. Tribune Corporation (blogs.forbes.com)
• Create an Image Book about Life Dreams (brighthub.com)
• Rumor Patrol: New Batman TV Show on the Way (screenrant.com)
• Are you a Waiter or a Creator? [David Balcon] (ecademy.com)

Lost in Space

Image via Wikipedia

One of my favorite television shows when I was growing up was Lost in Space.  Lost in Space is what I have felt like the last couple of months when I wasn’t writing and posting to my blog.  I got so caught up in just going through the motions that I truly was Lost in Space.  I really needed the Robot around saying “Warning, Warning Will Robinson”  “continuing to just go through the motions will lead to disaster”.  While going through the motions and working the graveyard shift at a convenience store probably weren’t the best choices I have made recently they have fired me up to enter the new year pursuing all of the dreams that had slipped from the forefront to Lost in Space file.

I have always found the week between Christmas and New Years to be an excellent time to review the past year, think about what’s really important and set the stage for the coming year.  While I had taken all out massive action to attack the problems that led to my personal financial crisis, the solutions I jumped into ended up not being the answer but providing the answers and solutions to what I need to do in 2011.  You see, it is very easy to settle in to something that is easy, the hourly job at the convenience store was fun, easy and an escape from reality.  When I was mopping floors at 3 in the morning, all the cares of the world were absent, the silence was therapeutic and it was easy to just go through the motions.  But my life has never been about going through the motions and getting Lost in Space like I did, wasn’t helping my situation one bit.

So as I sit here, doing what I enjoy most (writing) I am planning my escape from the alien planet and that place in space where I was lost.  In 2011, I intend to focus on the things I do best and the things I have always wanted to do.  I am an Entrepreneur and the failures of the past three years had dampened my spirit and led me to believe that just getting a normal job was the way to go.  Getting Lost in Space was what I needed to understand what it was that I needed to do moving forward.  2011 promises to be an exciting year and I have set up a number of new plans to challenge myself to find my way back to the planet Earth.

I know that was a pretty lame attempt to try to work in one of my favorite TV shows from my childhood, but actually it was that TV show that set me straight.  Part of my daily routine was to lay down at 6 pm to take a short nap before going into my job at the convenience store at 9pm.  I would turn on the Family Network at 6 just as the reruns of Lost in Space would come on.  I ended up not getting a lot of sleep because I got so caught up in watching Lost in Space.   After about two months of this routine was when it hit me that I had become Lost in Space.  Somehow, I don’t think it was coincidence that Lost in Space began airing on the Family Network about the same time I started this routine of working 2 full-time hourly positions that paid just a little over minimum wage.  The Universe has a funny way of working and I believe, the TV show was reminding me of what I was doing to myself.

I apologize for the scattered way my post today is going but it may take me a few days to get my writing groove back in synch.  Before I close things out today I want to share with you an email I received as one of my daily notes from the Universe (www.tut.com) .   It is really amazing what the right words can do to lift your spirits and remind you of what your true purpose in life is.  Imagine how you would feel if you received the email below and took it to heart.  I believe this email is what helped me remember what I was up to before getting Lost in Space.  More than anything, I hope that I can someday find the words to share with people around the world that will help them feel the way I did when I received this email.  Thank you Mike Dooley for your daily notes from the Universe! I hope everybody reading this goes to your website and signs up for your daily notes right now.  Here’s the email:

 

 

 

 

        

     

  

If it’s not yet obvious to you, the real reason for this, and all seasons, is you, Tim. A more perfect child of the Universe has never lived. Until now, only celebrations cloaked in myth and mystery could hint at your divine heritage and sacred destiny. You are life’s prayer of becoming and its answer. The first light at the dawn of eternity, drawn from the ether, so that I might know my own depth, discover new heights, and revel in seas of blessed emotion.

A pioneer into illusion, an adventurer into the unknown, and a lifter of veils. Courageous, heroic, and exalted by legions in the unseen.

To give beyond reason, to care beyond hope, to love without limit; to reach, stretch, and dream, in spite of your fears. These are the hallmarks of divinity – traits of the immortal – your badges of honor. May you wear them with a pride as great as the immeasurable pride we feel for you.

Your light has illuminated darkened paths, your gaze has lifted broken spirits, and already your life has changed the course of history.

This is the time of year we celebrate Tim Braun.Bowing before Greatness,
    The Universe

So this email has set up the challenge for me in the coming year, my number one goal is to give beyond reason, care beyond hope, love without limit; to reach, stretch and dream in spite of my fears.  I challenge you to do the same.  It seems to me that if a person can pull this off there is no possible way for them to fail or to ever again get Lost in Space….

Related Articles

• Lost In Space (thefrisky.com)

What’s with all the Discounts and Free Stuff ?

Image via Wikipedia

It’s funny how the Universe works,  a few months back I made up my mind to eliminate as much negative input from my life as possible.  I stopped listening to talk radio, network and cable news, stopped reading the newspaper unless there was an uplifting, positive story and I decided to look for the good in everything I did everyday, no matter what.   In addition, to losing the 40 extra pounds I had piled on over the past few years, great opportunities starting coming my way and most importantly I saw possibilities where before I just saw obstacles.  Overall my life is starting to feel like it did for the first 47 years before I created all the challenge and crisis of the past few years but there is something much different this time around and I think it is because I have taken such massive action and have truly been able to let go of my ego and try to fill everything I do with love.

So beyond all the cool opportunities and overall just better well being I am feeling these days, something very strange but wonderful has started happening.  All of sudden no matter where I go, I am getting unexpected discounts and even stuff handed to me for free.   I am not sure what is behind this, at first I thought people figured I was old and they were just being nice and giving me a senior discount, but with all the weight I have lost nobody thinks I look old enough to qualify for a Senior Citizen discount,  I know AARP has lowered their age requirement to 50 but most everyone else doesn’t offer a senior discount unless your 65 and even at that I think you have to ask for it.  No, in my case I have just been totally shocked by this sudden and interesting development in my life.

Let’s begin with the discount at Taco Bell.  With my incredibly busy schedule, I end up eating on the run a lot and because I am trying to get in as good a shape as I was in College, I am trying to eat healthy and lose weight.   So one of the things I have done is followed the Drive-Thru diet at Taco Bell (really they have a low fat, low calorie menu that is delicious), you can get the drive-thru diet when you eat inside as well.  One of my favorite things to do is trying to put a smile on the face of just about everybody I come in contact with, especially those working in jobs that aren’t traditionally fun.  So I first noticed the unexpected discounts at Taco Bell, every time I would go into this one Taco Bell I always made it a point to joke with the person taking my order about the drive-thru diet and always found a way to compliment the person at the same time.  The manager at this Taco Bell always would come up to the register and smile and tell me to have a great day.  So after doing this a few times, all of sudden I noticed that when ever I came into the restaurant, the manager would come to the front and open another register and tell me he could take care of me at his register.  I noticed that the food I had been paying $3.94 for suddenly dropped to $2.50, first I looked at the menu to see if there was a price change but there wasn’t then I looked at the receipt and their it was “SR Discount”, which I assumed meant Senior Discount.  Whatever it means, I am enjoying saving money and the incredible service being offered me.

So it gets even better, the other day when I was working at the Mall of America, I was standing in a long line at a Pretzel stand just to get a diet coke.  The line was very long and the Father and Son who were working at the Pretzel stand were a bit overwhelmed with the line and the attitude of the people in line.  They were handling it as best they could but I saw an opportunity to help out  so I started talking to everyone in line around me that had become impatient with the wait, I told them that the reason the line was so long was that this was the greatest pretzel stand on the planet and if they wanted to give up their place in line there were hundreds of people I could call on my cell phone that would be willing to wait all day for a chance to get one of these pretzels.  I said some other stuff as well, but the bottom line is that this line of angry and impatient customers started laughing and enjoying the line  and now seemed like they could wait forever, it was fun and it made the whole experience of waiting in line an adventure.  When it was my turn to order my Diet Coke,  the Father who most likely also owned the stand took my order, when he came back with the Diet Coke, I tried to hand him the money I had ready and he said “I should be paying you, the Coke’s on me, would you like a free pretzel to go with your Diet Coke ?”.  I walked away  amazed at what had just happened,  I don’t know if I have developed a new technique to get free stuff and discounts or not but what I do know is that the discounts and free stuff just keep piling up and whether it’s because I am smiling and happy or trying to help people change their attitude, I am not sure. 

The next time you find yourself in a line or at a restaurant with unhappy employees or customers, make it a game and see if you can get people smiling and laughing, you may not save any money or get something free right away, but even if you don’t get a discount what you will get is the satisfaction of knowing you played a small part in turning somebody’s day around.   Ultimately, the universe will repay you many times over, so spread some good cheer today and sit back and when wait for the return on your investment.   I really like the new Ford Explorer that is coming out this fall, so I think I am going to hand around the Ford dealership and see what I can do to change the attitudes of everyone working there, not sure if I can get a Free or discounted Explorer, but I know I am going to have fun trying !

Related Articles

• Taco Bell’s Drive-Thru Diet Menu Fuels Christine Dougherty’s 26.2-Mile Run in the Marathon in New York City (eon.businesswire.com)
• The Taco Bell Diet is a Great Way to Reduce Calories and Fat (diet-trends.suite101.com)
• Jon Gosselin’s Got Beef … With Taco Bell (abcnews.go.com)
• Friday Freebies: ice cream, photo collage, Taco Bell drink, and Halloween tote bag! (walletpop.com)
• Too Young to be Senior (socyberty.com)
• Starplex Cinemas Announces Free Movies for Seniors at Oklahoma Discount Locations (eon.businesswire.com)

Those Who Inspire Us……

Image via Wikipedia

I have to be the luckiest guy on earth, throughout my life, incredible people have shown up on a regular basis with life experiences that are extraordinary and extraordinarily inspirational.  As I have searched for what my true purpose is in life, I always thought I wanted to inspire people through books, audio programs and public speaking, I was foolish enough to think that I had done something inspirational and that I could speak from personal experiences.   While I have had many successes, many challenges and many comebacks in the past and hopefully in the future, my experiences are nothing compared to the people that have shown up in my life that truly were an inspiration and whose examples of conquering challenges in their lives have kept me going and made my challenges minor in comparison.

As I thought about all the incredible people that have come into my life at various times to inspire me, it became clear that the best way for me to inspire others was by sharing with the stories of those that have inspired me over the years.  In an earlier post on my blog I spoke about some of the people that inspired me as I was growing up through my high school years, including former Minnesota Twins Shortstop  Danny Thompson, my American Legion Baseball Coach Ted Leuer and many others.  Today I had an opportunity to think about those who have inspired me in the years after I graduated from High School and one of the first persons that came to mind was a life insurance salesman from Spearfish, South Dakota.  I moved to Spearfish in October of 1979 after taking a job as the mid-day announcer at KBFS Radio in Belle Fourche, one of the first people to welcome me to Spearfish was Harvey Krautschun, I was just 20 years old and Harvey was the most positive and energetic person I had met in my life.  At first, I thought Harvey was just being so cool because he wanted to sell me life insurance, which I bought shortly after our first visit, but I soon discovered that Harvey just loved people and loved making a difference in everyone’s lives.  Over the 2 years I spent in Spearfish, Harvey and I had the opportunity to become good friends, heck Harvey even returned the favor, and bought some radio ads from me and had me record his commercials.

After leaving Spearfish in the Spring of 1981, Harvey and I stayed in contact, or should I say Harvey kept in touch with me,  every time I would think about calling Harvey, he would call me before I had the chance to call him.   Harvey’s calls were always different than any other calls I would ever receive,  Harvey never called to talk about himself, he always called to check on me and more importantly my family.  After every call I got from Harvey, I always found myself wondering why I hadn’t taken the time to find out how Harvey and his family were doing.  In the 90’s when I had started a fairly significant company in the Floppy disk replication business, Harvey tried hard to convince me and my partners to move the company headquarters to South Dakota, he made arrangements for a trip that flew me to Sioux Falls and  Spearfish where I met with City and State Government officials who wanted to do anything they could to get us to move our company, I was all for it but my partners just didn’t think it made sense.  That trip was the first time that I realized what a great business builder and supporter of local communities Harvey was.  Later in the 90’s Harvey became be a state legislator and ultimately the Speaker of the State House of Representatives and many thought he would end up as Governor.

Here’s where the story gets interesting, throughout the 90’s Harvey called me on a regular basis and as usual was only interested in checking on me and my family, and again I always wondered why I never asked about Harvey and his family.  Harvey never missed a beat calling including throughout 1995 and 1996 which I would later find out was a very difficult time for Harvey, even though he didn’t mention his challenge even once to me during his calls of 1995 and 1996.   In July of 1995, when a newborn colt jumped into an 8-foot pond, Harvey’s wife Joy jumped in to save the colt.  While trying to save the colt, Joy’s heart suddenly failed, Harvey rushed to her side and began mouth to mouth resuscitation.  Harvey and Joy’s son, Bart, rushed to find additional help, calling an ambulance.  Bart returned to his mother’s side and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her.  Father and son together fought to save Joy’s life.  The massive heart failure pushed her into a coma.  Harvey stood by Joy’s hospital bed as she lay comatose for a month, fighting for her life.  Because of his constancy and commitment to his wife’s life, even as doctor’s began discussing terminating life support, Harvey’s devotion remained unmoved.  He was determined to see his wife awake again.

Joy awoke from her coma.  Her recovery from the massive heart damage would entail months of hospitalization and therapy.  Joy did recover, and today she is living with her family even though doctor’s had believed she would not live.  Harvey and his family made a commitment to Joy’s life and it was that commitment that saved her.  Harvey is truly incredible and an inspiration, even while faced with incredible turbulence in his own life he still found time to call and check on me and my family without mentioning the challenges of his own family.

I found about Joy’s accident and illness in the summer of 1997, I had done quite well with my sales career and had taken 3 weeks off to travel the west with my wife and two young children.   I had a tire blow out on my 31 foot RV that was towing an SUV as I was driving down a mountain in Wyoming at 80 plus miles per hour, while it scared the heck out of me, I was able to pull the vehicle to the shoulder and get the help that was needed to tow the RV to Spearfish, South Dakota.   The first thing I thought of was, I am going to call Harvey to tell him how successful I have been and how much fun I was having taking a long vacation with my incredibly healthy family.  Of course, I would also have to tell him of the trauma caused by the one day delay in our trip because of the flat tire.  I called Harvey and of course Harvey was thrilled to hear from me and offered to take me to lunch.  While having lunch, I bragged about my success and the health of my family and could tell Harvey was sincerely happy for everything that had come my way.   I finally had made it a point that this time I was going to ask Harvey about his family, I did and he finally opened up and told me Joy’s story.  I can’t tell you what a wake up call that was,  I was so caught up with myself that I had forgotten about those who had done so much for me over the years.  Harvey was always there to check on me, to lend me advice and be sure my family was doing well and I never returned the favor.  Inspirational people like Harvey help remind us of what is important and most importantly their stories remind us of how trivial most of our daily issues are.  I have spoken way too often in this blog about the challenges I have faced financially over the past three years, but my family is healthy and while we had a very tough time with the death of my mother in-law, none of our daily challenges come close to those of the people who have shown up in my life like Harvey Krautschun, Terry Lyles, Marian Braun and Kathlyn Hunt.  I want to share more with you about the people who have inspired me and continue to inspire me on a daily basis.  I hope their stories will inspire you and help you realize that challenges of any size are manageable and that miracles do occur when you KNOW they will.

Groovin’

Image via Wikipedia

The transformation taking place in my life is amazing and I can’t get over all the cool stuff that is going on in my head.  It has proven to me once again that we can and do create what happens in our lives, we decide if we are going to be happy or sad, tired or energized, everything revolves around our thoughts and as Mike Dooley says “Thoughts become things”.  The real key to all this magic is being conscious,  or at least consciously filling your mind with the good thoughts and the good input from outside sources.  TV, Radio and Newspapers can unconsciously fill your head with doom and gloom, shape your opinions about our leaders and take you out of the “zone”.

9th grade was my breakthrough year when I was playing baseball, prior to that I dropped the ball, especially when the game was on the line, I struck out, especially when I shouldn’t have and no matter how bad I wanted it I couldn’t get a hit.  Then two things happened, I started praying two to three times a day, and I got my hands on a book that talked about athletes performing at their best when they were in the zone.  As I look and think back to that time, the praying part was much more than just asking God to help me with my baseball skills as I took the praying seriously and really went into a state of total focus on asking God to help me but also repeating to myself what I wanted to happen, which in this case was I wanted to hit like Rod Carew.  The other thing was reading that book that talked about being in the zone,  the zone was when an athlete got himself into that perfect state where he was firing on all cylinders and everything was working perfect which allowed him to perform at the highest ability possible.   I have never  forgotten these particular strategies in my life and as I talked about in a  past blog, the things I learned on the Baseball field have served me well in life.

If you have been following my transformation through this blog, then you know that I was pretty much in the zone for the first 47 years of my life, just about everything I dreamed about or wanted for my life came true, I had mastered being in the “zone” of life because I “Knew” I could make things happen and I knew things would work out exactly as I planned.  Then I lost my way, I gave into listening to people tell me I wasn’t being realistic, that things weren’t going to be as good as I thought they would, I listened to the negative news on talk radio, TV news and read it in the paper and those thoughts became things and my world wasn’t so good for three years.  In July of this year, I decided to take massive action, including not letting any of the outside media or opinions of others affect what I “knew” was the truth.   The transformation has been incredible, I have effortlessly lost over 30 pounds, I feel better, I am positive and I have so many opportunities coming my way it is truly incredible.  But nothing explains this better than the music that plays in my head.

In August,  I was very stressed out one morning even though I had started down this path of knowing, I still let myself slip but I was enough on the right road that music started playing in my head when those stressful thoughts entered.  The Beach Boys ” Don’t Worry Baby” and the lyrics “everything will work out” played in my head and corrected my thoughts.  That worked so well that I wrote a blog post about the power of music and how hearing that song in my head, set my thinking straight that day.  The transformation and music continues, things have been going so well that I wanted to come up with a term other than being in the zone to describe this state I have been able to get myself into.   So while I was out walking my trusty companion “Flash” the golden retriever,  the juke box in my head started playing that old classic by the Young Rascals “Groovin“.   I immediately knew that was what I was going to call this state of mind, so right now I am “Groovin'” and on my way back to the incredible life I knew I could have.

I am not sure if you remember my “Don’t  Worry Baby” post but I got so excited about my mental juke box that I started talking about all the great lyrics of those songs  that have played in my head.  So after “Groovin” played on the juke box and wouldn’t stop playing, I started thinking about the lyrics and they are amazing especially when it comes to creating the world you always wanted for yourself.  Check this out…Groovin’…on a Sunday Afternoon (I choose to be Groovin 24/7)   I can’t imagine anything that’s better, The world is ours when we are together (I took this line as the World is ours when me and my thoughts are together)  There ain’t a place I’d like to be instead of Groovn’.  And it only get’s better as the song goes on…There’s always lot’s of things the we can see…we can be anyone we want to be..And all those “Happy” people we could meet just…Groovin.   We’ ll keep on spending sunny days this way, we’re gonna talk and laugh our time away…I feel it comin’ closer day by day…Life would be ectasy…..Groovin.   If that doesn’t describe my personal transformation of the past few months, I am not sure what does.  Those words are perfect if you are trying to start “Groovin” or getting in the zone, whether it is “We can be anyone we want to be” or “I feel it comin closer day by” these are incredible affirmations that will help you get in the zone or as I like to say “Groovn”.

So fire up your personal juke box in your head,  remember those songs that touched you and had a positive impact on your life and maybe even find some new ones that take you where you want to go.  For me, there is no place I would rather be than….Groovin !

1977

Image via Wikipedia

I have to say that 1977 ranks at or near the top of my all time favorite years.   I was blessed with having the best classmates on the face of the earth and in my opinion the greatest collection of teachers and coaches ever assembled in one High School.  I was incredibly proud to be a Cooper Hawk whether as a student, baseball player, ski racer or cross-country runner, Cooper High School was the best and in particular my senior year 1977 was the absolute best year of school I ever had.

Over the past 50 years, I have made thousands of friends and had the opportunity to talk to thousands and thousands of people in my travels not only around the United States but around the world.  To this date,  I still talk about my experience at Cooper High School and what I find is that I can’t find anyone that has had a high school experience to match mine.  It’s true many people have fond memories of high school, but none compares to my experience.

Every chance I get, I drive by Cooper High School trying to re-live those incredible days, some times I will throw on the Bruce Springsteen CD and play “Glory Days” over and over.  I like to go sit in the dugout at the baseball field and re-live the great times I had playing with the greatest baseball teams and coaches ever assembled anywhere.   Don’t tell me the Yankees or my Twins had a better team or mix of players than the teams I played on in 75, 76 and 77.  Whether it was playing baseball, running cross-country, making films in speech class or sitting in Humanities class there wasn’t one moment I didn’t thoroughly enjoy.   This incredible environment made me strive for great grades and winning performances in sports.  I am not sure I can explain this because I haven’t seen anything like it anyplace but at Cooper during my time there.

The other amazing thing about Cooper High School was that the friendships I developed during that time have endured, all of my best friends went to High School with me, when I moved to my second home in Maple Gove in 1986, the whole neighborhood filled up with Cooper High School graduates.  The strong bond that connected us in High School carries on to today, my class in particular holds formal reunions every 5 years that are well attended, informal reunions yearly at the Crystal Frolics in July that include Heidi’s home tours of all the old home we lived in during the time we were in High School and of course a run to everyone’s favorite mexican fast food restaurant Zantigo.   Because there was so much time (5 years)in between our last reunion we even had an all class 50th Birthday party and this weekend we are having an all 70’s party.

When I share my love of the class of 1977 with other people they always think I am from a small town, with a very small class, the opposite is true, Cooper is in New Hope, Minnesota a large suburb of Minneapolis and our graduating class was at least 700 in size.   The friends I made, the teachers who taught me and the coaches who coached me have all played important roles in my life,  The success at Cooper High School set the stage for the success I enjoyed in my life.  Specifically, I had a network of friends that supported me and were always behind me every step of the way, you can always depend on a Cooper Hawk to have your back.

1977, what a year !  Besides my incredible experience in High School, I enjoyed my hometown, my jobs and dating my girlfriend Suanne who has been with me since 1975, married since 1980.  I long for a Saturday night dinner at the Nankin Chinese restaurant followed by a movie at the Mann Orpheum Theater on Hennepin.  I miss meeting my classmates at  Happy Joe’s Pizza in Crystal and I really miss letting all my classmates into the movies at the Terrace Theater in Robbinsdale where I worked as an usher.

The late 70’s was of course the dawning of the disco era with dancing at Scottie’s on 7th, I had one of those White Suits (just like Steve Martin’s) and all the craze was the silk shirts imprinted with different pictures and of course you were not allowed to button the top three buttons on the shirt.  I never got into the gold chains but believe they were huge at the time.  My all time favorite Baseball player, Rod Carew was the American League MVP in 1977.  I drove a 1977 Mustang Mach I that is still my favorite car.   1977 and everything that went with it is still my favorite year.  Everything was firing on all cylinders not only was the year great but the expectation of being able to go out on my own and pursue my dreams was forefront in my mind.

I was truly in the zone in 1977, I had a picture in my mind of what I was going to do with my life and I “KNEW” I could make it happen and I did make it happen for the next 30 years almost exactly as I dreamed about it in 1977.  I know how strong my dream was and how good I was at visualizing exactly the life I wanted so I am dubbing my system for creating the life you want, System 1977, if you can remember how you felt  when you graduated from High School and can remember the dreams you had and the plans you had, you can return to that feeling anytime you want and once you do, you can create the next 50 years to fit your  dream.  I know I had the unfair advantage of being a Cooper Hawk and having the support of the greatest classmates on the face of the earth, but I know everyone has the power to create the life they want and the best way to describe the feeling you need to have is taking yourself back to a time in your life when you were full of dreams and expectations and about to launch into the world.

For me,  1977 and everything about Cooper High School is etched permanently in my mind and nothing means more to me than having the opportunity to return to those days whether it is communicating with my classmates, having dinner with one of my incredible coaches or sitting in the dugout at the Baseball field.  My time at Cooper, confirmed for me that the world and life could be anything you wanted to make it.  Thank you Classmates, Teachers and Coaches, you mean the world to me and I appreciate everything you have done for me.

Your Kiss is on My List

“My list of the best things in life”  includes music that puts a smile on your face and makes you feel good all over.  Like my Blog post “Don’t Worry Baby”, music is great therapy and hearing the Hall and Oates classic “Your Kiss is on My List” immediately brought me back to the early days of dating my wife ( 30 years of marriage, and 35 years of dating).  Not only did it bring me back to the early years of my relationship with my wife but it also made it clear to me that we are constantly creating our own experiences in life.  And what may seem a simple coincidence is actually much more.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner.   Whether you call it Synchronicity or coincidence, I believe it all happens for a meaningful reason and it is up to you to figure out what the synchronicity in your life means.  So where am I going with Hall and Oates and Synchronicity ?  Well, something very interesting has been happening to me since I started writing this blog, meaningful and fulfilling synchronicity is started to appear daily, I am getting back into the zone where I was completely in control of my life and able to create things almost exactly as I wanted.  Miracles both large and small have started to happen but most importantly, friends, family and random people who have found my blog have started to have similar experiences.  I received an urgent text today from a business associate who has been reading my blogs who wanted to let me know what a great day she had and how everything was falling into place as she visualized it.  Now I know this particular person is very spiritual, has incredible faith, an awesome attitude and likes to read things like “The Secret” and similar works.  So she is understands the whole “knowing” thing that was the reason I started writing this blog in the first place.   What was really cool for me was that she created her day the way she always knew she could but she took the time to share her experience with me.   Her sharing of her experience today sent a positive shock through my body of knowing we can all create exactly the lives we want and that thought (good or bad) is contagious.  

Hall and Oates, what role do they play in today’s post ?  That’s another fun story I would like to share with you today because it is a great example of the incredible sychronicities in my life.   A few months back while searching Facebook for old friends, neighbors and business associates, I ran across Bren.  Bren or Brenda as I knew her back in the 60’s and 70’s was the cute Blonde from across the street in the neighborhood I grew up in.  Bren was a year younger than me but I had a crush on her during my entire elementary school experience.   Back then,  and I suppose at that age, you never hung around with girls in a grade below you and besides I never thought she had any interest in me.  But I always had that crush and anytime I had the chance to give her a ride on my Schwinn Apple Crate bike, I always was happy.   Well it turns out that Bren is a huge Hall and Oates fan, which was interesting because my wife when I started dating her in 1975  was also a huge Hall and Oates fan.  I have enjoyed Hall and Oates ever since my wife first played “She’s gone” for me from the “Abandoned Luncheonette” album.   So last week, I am checking out the news feed on Facebook and Bren posts that Hall and Oates are going to be in town and she wants to know who’s going with her ?.  I jokingly, immediately posted that I was going.  I really wanted to go but couldn’t justify spending the money at the moment.   So after posting my reply, I forgot about it, then late last week Bren sends me a message telling me that she has two extra tickets that my wife and I could have.   Wow,   I couldn’t believe the offer so I told Bren I just had to check with my wife to confirm.  Saturday rolls around and I tell my wife about Bren and the tickets, she was thrilled, so I immediately confirmed with Bren.  Now that was all incredible and fun but listen to this,  so my wife and I decide to go to a movie that afternoon, we decided to see “You Again” with Jamie Leigh Curtis.  Now, we decided to got to this movie just minutes after I confirmed with Bren about going with her to the Hall and Oates concert.  My wife and I really knew nothing about the movie except that Jamie Leigh Curtis  was in it.   So we are sitting in the  theater, eating a HUGE bucket of buttered popcorn when all of a sudden the couple in the movie are playing the Hall and Oates song “Your Kiss is on My List” on the radio, now that may seem like just a funny coincidence to you but to me it was synchronicity and a reminder to me that I played a role in the events that had just been created.  Even better, at the end of the movie and rolling into the credits, Hall and Oates and the cast of the movie sang “Your Kiss is on My List”.   While I always enjoyed that song, I never remembered the lyrics including the line “The Best Things in Life”, when I heard that, I knew the Universe was sending me yet another message about why happiness is the key to everything and when you know the outcome of your life, you can’t help but be happy.

You can have all of the Best Things In Life, you know you can, you just have to visualize your list of the best things and sit back and watch them show up.  I am adding something to my list of the best things in life, getting everyone to know they can create incredible experiences in their lives.  I know you can do it and I know that in my life, cancelling out the media has had a major impact and changed the way things are going for me.  I no longer listen to  or watch  any of the major news networks including my favorite Fox news, I don’t pay attention to the political nonsense going on in this country (I do intend to vote and I know my intuition will guide me to the right candidates),   I have turned off talk radio in favor of audio programs from Wayne Dyer, Mike Dooley and Joe Vitale.  Yes you could say I am brainwashing myself with positive, fulfilling and uplifting messages, and yes the brainwashing is working, I am washing out all the dirt and replacing it with clean new information.  I hope you will join me in creating incredible life experiences and if you get a chance, a text message, blog comment or email would be great, I love to hear about people and the great experiences they have created for themselves.  Get to work on your list of the “Best things in life” and make your life the best !

Related Articles

• The Hall and Oates revival (cbc.ca)
• Wandering the Aisles, Vol. 1: Hall & Oates for the Obsessed (popdose.com)

Owner’s Guide to Enjoying Every Single Step of Your Life !

Image via Wikipedia

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t enjoy each and every step of your life.   I have embarked on an experiment the past few weeks that is showing me that you can enjoy every minute of your life, no matter what you are doing.  The best part is it’s easy, you just have to make up your mind that you are going to enjoy everything.   I always wanted to write something where I could use the term “Pollyanna ‘,   as in most people who are reading this are saying, oh no, Tim has gone “Pollyanna” on us.  I probably didn’t use that right but it was fun and most importantly you would never believe how much I just enjoyed that.  If you are new to my blog, you should know that after 27 years of creating a perfect life for myself and my family, I messed up the last three years and let the folks from the Dark Side convince me that I shouldn’t be happy and that I couldn’t really be as successful as I always had been.  This weak moment, ended up being devastating between a business failure and losing my home of 25 years to Foreclosure.  When I finally woke up from the nightmare, I decided to employ all the tactics and strategies I had used the previous 27 years, except this time around, I am super charging them.   

The first serious test came last week when I needed a miracle to save a property I own from foreclosure, I focused and made up my mind it was going to work out and it did (read my miracle blogs from last week for the details).  The strategies and tactics I am referring to are all the lessons I have learned from the Bible, Wayne Dyer, Terry Lyles, Earl Nightingale, Tony Robbins,  Joe Vitale, Mike Dooley, Peter Geisendorfer-Lindgren, My all time favorite coach Ted Leuer, Pinky McNamara, My Grandmother and my Mom.  I don’t have the time or space to tell you what they taught me, but I have tried to share a piece from every one of them in my blogs the last couple months. 

The Experiment…So a lot of people think I am nuts and think that I taking on way more than anyone can handle but before I go into the detail, let me just say I don’t think I have ever been this energized in my life.   My massive action to fix my life and correct the problems of the last three years includes taking on 3 full-time jobs, working 7 days a week while continuing to write my blogs, film my video blog, record my audio programs and work on my long-term life creation plan.   As I said, I am energized and enjoying every single minute, I have looked at each full-time position as an adventure, not as job but truly an adventure and it’s working.  Let me give you an idea, first if you don’t know much about me I am a lifelong salesperson and entrepreneur, I have made over a million dollars a year more than once in my lifetime, I have started at least 10 companies, I have been a radio broadcaster, a baseball coach, a father, a husband, a son, a public speaker and more.   The background is important for you to know because I think once you find out about my 3 full-time adventures, you might think I am over qualified or taking on something that should be below me.  So here we go,  each night from 10 pm to 6 am, I am the night manager at a convenience store that is owned by a great company that has over 400 stores or as they like to call them “Stationstores”,  My kids can’t figure out why I enjoy it so much, but the reason I enjoy it so much is it’s an adventure, I am learning, I am meeting new people, I am helping people,  people are handing me money all night,  I learned how to operate a car wash, stock soft drinks in a cooler, run one of those cool safes and I even get to sell Lottery tickets.  Not once have I asked myself what am I doing here, not once have I worried about what they are paying me.  I know it’s strange but I made up my mind to enjoy everything I do and the gas station is no exception.  I truly am enjoying every step and every task at my night-time adventure. 

In the late afternoon and evening I am selling a great new high-speed internet service and I get to work at the largest mall in America, The Mall of America.  We have really cool products, cool uniforms and I get to help people connect to the internet no matter where they are at high-speed.  This company is new to Minnesota and relatively new Nationwide so it’s like the good old days of working with a start-up with the latest and greatest technology. 

My other position is selling what I did for over 27 years, media replication services, and while things have changed dramatically and the business hasn’t come in as quickly as I hoped, now that I have a new attitude and approach I know this business is going to take off as I venture into areas I hadn’t previously pursued. 

Side effects…So I bet you are thinking that this guy must be tired and he can’t be enjoying anything else, guess what you are 100% wrong.  Again, I can’t explain it, but it’s as if the whole word switched over to High Definition, 3D when I made up my mind to enjoy everything.  I have lived in Minnesota most of my 51 years but all of sudden, I am seeing beauty along every road with the changing colors and landscape, I am discovering buildings and places in Downtown Minneapolis that I had either forgotten about or had never appreciated in the past.   There is a very old Catholic Church a few blocks from me that was built in the mid-1800’s by German settlers that I am just amazed at every time I drive by it.  I never really paid attention to Church buildings before but all of a sudden I am intrigued by everyone I see. 

And it’s not just landscape and buildings that I am enjoying, I am truly enjoying meeting new people and dining with old friends.   I know this sounds unbelievable but some how I have managed to get  myself in the “Zone”,  every experience, every phone call, every meal seems much more intense and enjoyable.  I am no longer going through the motions of life, I am enjoying every single step.  I am enjoying things so much that I don’t even think about sleeping and I can’t even tell you the last time I was tired.  OK, there was something I didn’t enjoy last week, the Sequel to Wall Street, it did put me to sleep, but it was the most enjoyable nap I ever had and I got to do it in a very nice theater and the bonus was my son took me to the movie. 

Yep, this time it was all about me, but I talked about me and my amazing life because you should be enjoying your life as much as I am enjoying mine.  I can’t imagine doing it any other way.  One of the things I am enjoying more than just about anything is my daily emails from the Universe (www.tut.com) .  Here’s what the Universe sent me this morning:

Tim, do you know why I am always there? Because I want you to have all of those things you’ve told me about, and so much more.Let’s kick some “butt,”     The Universe

  

Which reminded me that I am probably having such a great time and enjoying things so much, because I finally have accepted who walks beside me in everything I do.  If you knew who walked beside you in everything you do, I know you would feel the same way.   Enough of Tim’s blabbing, go out and enjoy yourself, you deserve it !!!

Related Articles

• When life hands you lemons – set up a lemonade stand! (azbusinessresource.com)
• Remains of the Day: A Million-dollar Bill (pcworld.com)