Have you misunderstood the true power of COMMITMENT?

In your face question, I know. I ask because in my mentor-coaching (and life... and work... and...) I come across this one— misunderstanding commitment; it's power and how to use it properly & powerfully— a lot. 

"Sam, what will it take for you to get started with your project?"

"Well, as soon as I can clear the time on my schedule... and get the funding in place... then I'll dive in. I am absolutely committed to this."

Ah, no Sam. You're not. Oh I get that you want to be committed. But right now, you're just laying eggs.

A story.  

One afternoon in the barnyard after a hard day's work all the animals were having a lively discussion. The subject comes around to commitment.

The hen, a black Australorp— a breed that consistently lays approximately 250 light-brown eggs per year (and holds the world-record with one remarkable hen laying 364 eggs in 365 days!)— proudly said, "I am committed to laying one egg each & every day this year!"

The animals applauded enthusiastically, nodding and smiling to each other— except... the pig."

"One egg... every day... for a year," the pig said. "That's NOT commitment!"

"Now bacon... THAT's commitment."

Back to Sam. What Sam failed to understand was the value, use & power of commitment.

Not another story. A quote this time, from W. H. Murray of the Second Himalayan Expedition:

Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.
 
I have learned a great respect for one of Goethe’s couplets;
 
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

The line above in bold italic is the one I'd like you to pay attention to. Those "all sorts of things" that occur to help you come out of your commitment. They happen only when & because you make the commitment. The decision... the commitment... is where the power is, but it doesn't come out to play until the commitment is made.

People like Sam want to wait until the timing is right, until the money, or support, or ideas, or partners, or stars are in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars BEFORE they're willing & able to commit to something. What they don't realize is that timing, money, etceteras BECOME right, BECAUSE you made the commitment.

Do you suppose the divorce rate has dropped dramatically since couples began living together before they got married? Wasn't my experience.

I recall a conversation I had with Bob Proctor where Bob told me, "John, if you know HOW you're going to achieve your goal... you need a more worthy goal. It's in the process of pursuing your goal that you discover the "hows."

Like the "goal" in the example above, it's making & keeping your commitment that enables the new ideas... new possibilities... and "all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance" reveal themselves to help you fulfill your commitment.

Richard Brooke told me that people often confuse convenience with commitment. I.e; "When everything's in place, THEN I'll make the commitment." That's convenience.

When nothing is in place, and you decide to go for it, anyway, trusting that by engaging fully in the process you'll learn & experience all you need to succeed... that's commitment.

Perhaps commitment just wants to make sure you're willing to take the same risk on it that it's willing to take on you.

______________________________

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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2010. If not now... WHEN? (The REPLAY is available now)

The REPLAY of the Wednesday (12.30.09) Call is ready for you. Just click the webcast link below.) Here's the original announcement:

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Now... what do you think this rubber band is all about?

Not sure about you, but I am committed to making 2010 a break-out and breakthrough-through year for myself and everyone I know.

It's time... It REALLY is time.

2010. If not now... WHEN?

I've got some resources, tools & techniques I'm using to make 2010 the best year of my life (and work) and I'm going to share them with you on a webcast/ tele-seminar this Wednesday night (Details below).

No charge. No strings-- well, one. At the end of the call I'll give you a "pitch" on a special Mentor-Coaching "deal" I'm doing for six people starting January 8, 2010. It's for six-months ONLY-- no more. No less. because in six-months, you'll have learned everything I have to give you. You can learn more here: http://JohnMiltonFogg.com/Coaching. Why? Because I promise & guarantee you a breakthrough.

I welcome you questions & comments. You'll be able to enter them right on the webcast web page. Here are the details:

EVENT: 2010. If not now... WHEN?
DATE & TIME: Wednesday, December 30th at 8:25pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast -- it's your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW...

http://www.AttendThisEvent.com/?eventid=10557318

Number to dial: (952) 356-0015
Pin/ConferenceID: 931640#

And please, all your friends & associates are welcome.

______________________________

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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How Things Occur For You (and what makes that matter)

Last post December 19... That's embarassing. OKay, I'll start to make it up to you (and to myself) starting now.

I'm a Morty Lefkoe fan. Unabashed. His "work" on BELIEF is some of the best I've encountered. I consider him a rare "real deal" in the field, because... Morty's method WORKS (fast, too). Refreshing. Here's more...

... but before, a short rap to intro you to Morty.

Morty Lefkoe is president and founder of The Lefkoe Institute. He is the creator of a series of psychological processes (The Lefkoe Method) that result in profound personal and organizational change, quickly and permanently. He has written a book about the Lefkoe Belief Process (LBP), Re-create Your Life: Transforming Yourself and Your World. You can learn more about Morty and his work here: http://MortyLefkoe.com.

Now... here's a recent blog post "think-piece" that got my attention. Trust it will yours as well. Morty says his sense and "use" of the word "occur" is "...something beyond perception and subjective experience." Okay. That's what I call "interpretation." How things occur for you (and me) is based NOT on reality, but on our individual and unique interpretation of "reality." Fun stuff. Let me know what you learn that's valuable for you.

How Things Occur For You
I generally know when I’m about to have a breakthrough, when there is a new process or way of understanding something that is on the verge of taking shape. I have glimpses of ideas and I have a sense of connections that I can’t quite put my finger on. But I know if I stay with it, something new and useful ultimately will take shape.

That’s where I am now.  I think I’m about to come up with something very useful, and I’m not sure what it is yet. So I thought I would share with you some ideas I currently have swirling around in my mind and keep updating you as the ideas develop. I think I will end up with something that explains...

Why our lives turn out as they do (apart from the influence of beliefs and conditionings)…. and how we can better influence how our lives turn out.

This “stirring” in my mind started a few weeks ago when I came across a book my wife Shelly was reading for a course she was taking: The Three Laws of Performance, by Steven Zaffron and Dave Logan (Jossey-Bass, 2009). Here are a few of the passages that particularly intrigued me.

“Each person assumes the way things occur for him or her is how they are occurring for another.  But situations occur differently for each person.”

“So what exactly does occur mean? We mean something beyond perception and subjective experience.  We mean the reality that arises within and from your perspective on the situation. In fact, your perspective is itself part of the way in which the world occurs for you. ‘How a situation occurs’ includes your view of the past (why things are the way they are) and the future (where all this is going).”

“When people relate to each other as if each is dealing with the same set of facts, they have fallen into the reality illusion. To see the reality illusion at work, think of a person you aren’t happy with at the moment—perhaps someone you’ve been resenting for years.  In your own mind, think of words that describe that person.

“You might say, ‘self-centered,’ ‘doesn’t listen,’ ‘opinionated,’ and ‘irrational.’ You might be willing to swear on a stack of bibles that those words are accurate. But notice that you’ve described how the person occurs to you.”

“See the reality illusion at work, in you and people around you. Almost without exception, people don’t notice that all they are aware of is how situations occur to them. They talk, and act, as if they see things as they really are.”

“None of us see things as they are. 
  We see things as they occur to us.”

My first reaction after reading this material was that “how things occur” is nothing more than a function of our existing beliefs. We see/create our reality through the filter of our own beliefs. But the more I thought about it and the more I observed how things occur for me, the more I realized that this phenomenon is the result of more than beliefs. But what else causes it? I’m not sure yet. That’s what I’ve been pondering the past few days. I think, however, that the answer could explain a question I’ve had for years.

I’ve known for 25 years that you can change any behavior or emotion by eliminating the beliefs and conditionings (including senses and expectations) that cause the old behavior and emotion.

But this is not sufficient to change your reality, such as making more money or finding the romantic relationship of your dreams. Merely eliminating the barriers (beliefs) to those things showing up isn’t sufficient to actually have something show up in reality. Maybe how things occur for us would enable us to do that.

In the past I’ve investigated the Law of Attraction (as espoused by Seth, Abraham, The Secret, and others), Ernest Holmes’ Science of Mind, and quantum physics, but I don’t think any of these is sufficient to explain what it takes to have events in reality consistently show up in a particular way for you.

It is important to remember that beliefs are the meaning we give meaningless events in the world. Sometimes these meanings are generalizations and we conclude that I am …, people are …, and life is …. Other times we don’t generalize, we just say that I just did something wrong, or what he did was rude, or today has been a difficult day. All three of these are meanings/beliefs, but they are “narrow” meanings that are unlikely to affect us in most situations later in life.

How things occur for us at any given moment is a function of both types of beliefs. But what else is involved?

How things occur for us ultimately seems to be a function of the meaning we are giving any particular person or situation at the moment. Moreover, we seem to be predisposed to create a given meaning by all of our prior beliefs and conditionings. However, those prior meanings don’t cause the new meaning, they only predispose us. And by being conscious of the meaning we are assigning at any given moment, we might be able to change it despite old beliefs.

I noticed last week that recently I experienced being overwhelmed with things to do. No matter how much I did there was always more to do. There never seemed to be time to rest. That situation occurred for me as a problem. Because I had started thinking about the phenomenon of occurring, I tried to shift how these circumstances occurred to me, from negative to positive: all the things I have to do are opportunities. Aren’t I lucky to have so many great possibilities open to me? I don’t have to take advantage of all of them if I don’t have time. But I’m fortunate to have all of them and to be able to create new opportunities daily. It worked: My circumstances started occurring to me differently.

How this situation originally occurred for me seems to be largely the result of my beliefs, but the shift did not require me to eliminate beliefs, only to be conscious of the old way and consciously choose a new way.

It might be, however, that I would not be able to sustain the new occurring if I had beliefs that precluded it, such as Life in difficult or Nothing ever turns out for me.

Try to create a new occurring for yourself. Look at how a specific person or situation “occurs for you.” Describe it in as much detail as you can. Notice that you interact with the person or situation as if how it occurs for you is the truth? Can you also see that how the person or situation occurs is a function of your beliefs and conditionings? Now try to create an alternative way for it to occur for you. Can you do it?

I intend to keep noticing how things occur for me and see if I can trace the source of that experience. I also will see if I can shift my “occurring” and if I can’t, why I can’t. I also will see if the new occurring lasts, in other words, does it exist only at the moment I create it, with the old one “re-occurring” the next time that person or situation shows up, or does the new one I created continue to occur for me?

I’m looking forward to the next couple of weeks as I pursue this investigation. Please write your comments and questions in the blog below. [Use this link if you'd like to respond: http://www.mortylefkoe.com/121509/?awt_l=E2lfB&awt_m=1e8iivn1ZpHtOv] I’m really interested in what you think about this phenomenon and this blog post describing my journey.  I’m sure your comments on how things occur for you will help me in my quest.

If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one limiting belief free.

______________________________

There's more. The Conversation Continues: How Things Occur For Us, Part 2. Check it out and let me know what you think & feel about it AND, please share the value you've gotten from all of this.

AND... just had an inspired idea and acted on it: Here's a PDF of both parts of Morty's How Things Occur "rif." Let me know what you value most about it. Here: http://johnmiltonfogg.com/PDF/HowThingsOccur.pdf

______________________________

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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The power to change is in your hands

A few days ago, Randy Gage wrote a blog post titled: What are you doing about the gap? (The link will take you there.) Randy began by asking "...Why do people join network marketing?" He wrote that, "Most people do so because they want to get something more [and/or better]… They want to earn more money, have a better lifestyle, enjoy more time with their family, etc."

"You get more by becoming more." he explained, continuing with, "And we all have a gap. The gap of who we are, versus who we need to become in order to progress."

"You have to recognize the gap..." Randy said, "and decide to work on closing the gap."  

True. You do... We all— who want to be, do & have more & better in any way— do.

And that "gap" is a fascinating opportunity to tap into a profound piece of creative power we all have— literally, at our finger tips— to manifest whatever "heart's desire" we have for our life & work.

Creative Tension
I learned about what's called "Structural Tension" from Robert Fritz, author of one of the definitive books on the creative process I've ever encountered, The Path of Least Resistance. Robert used a rubber band to illustrate what I've come to call "The Physics of Creativity."

When you stretch a rubber band you create tension. The rubber band's natural tendency is to return to it's "relaxed" state— to resolve the tension. The principle Robert illustrated was that "Tension seeks resolution."

Remember Randy Gage's "Gap."

In the same way a rubber band "wants" to relax back to it's natural state, any gap we experience between where we are right now (Fritz called it "Current Reality") and where we want to be (Fritz called this "Vision") creates tension— tension that SEEKS resolution. As long as there's a "gap" between what we have (be, do...) and what we want to have (do, be...), that tension seeking resolution exists. And the wider the gap, the greater the tension. Explain any more about the Law of Attraction for ya'?

Fritz used this to describe how in any creative endeavor— a blank canvas "wanting" to become a completed painting, a clean sheet of paper and a best-selling novel, a patch of grass and a bountiful vegetable garden— as long as we have a clear picture of the Current Reality and the Vision of what's wanted, and there is a contrast or gap between the two, there is and that is the significant power available to resolve that tension, to bring what we envision into being.

They keys to the process are: 1. Telling the truth about Current Reality and your Vision. 2. Recognizing the gap. 3. Holding that tension. 

One beauty about Creative Tension is that Current Reality is always changing— minute by minute, everything on our world from pre-atomic particles, to blood and brain cells, to the weather, to the most dense form of matter on Earth (think rocks or iron) is always and forever changing. So, telling the truth about your present circumstances (including the thoughts & emotions & physical sensations you're having) and holding your Vision clearly & vividly with a consistent focus generates the very power needed to bring your desired Vision into being.

Neat stuff. It's part of the process I use/teach to shift limiting beliefs to ones that empower in BeliefBusters. Creative Tension puts the power to change in your hands.

______________________________

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I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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He's baaaack— kinda'

I'm back, but not back— really, fully, completely (just decided to get sick for a few days <smile>)— from my speaking engagement in Bangkok and our family fly-away to Thailand and to see Johnny (my son, 24, studying The Way of Tea in Kyoto) in Japan.

There's an album of (158) pictures with captions on Facebook, here: The Family Fogg in Asia, November-December 2009.

This one: Eel Eating on our first night in Japan with Johnny.

It was quite the adventure. The final act was the "Miracle in Narita and LAX" of having Katyusha allowed back in the U$A withOUT her green card. (It fell out of her passport at home before we left. It's safe now and so are we & she.)

More postings coming soon, promise— need to have something to share & say...

______________________________

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I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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