Chisel Your Life's Sculture

Michelangelo was once asked how he was able to envision his sculptures, and create them out of giant slabs of rock. He answered that he was able to imagine that the sculpture he envisioned already existed inside the rock. All he needed to do was remove the extra pieces to reveal it. I like to think of my life that way, and have been using some simple techniques to remove those extra pieces of rock.

Last week in my blog post, I declared a bold intention to buy my dream house this coming summer. Doing this is going to require some work, no doubt. The old me would have immediately gotten serious about the actions I needed to take. I would have reviewed my business plan, looked for areas to improve, doubled or tripled efforts to drive in new business, and worked longer hours to complete more projects. While these are all good ideas, they did nothing to prepare me mentally for the battle that would soon begin in my mind. This is the battle between my best intentions pushing me forward to succeed, and my ego driving me to failure with second guessing and self-doubt.

When I hear people scoff at talk about the Law of Attraction, I immediately know they simply don’t understand it. Many “scoffers” dismiss the idea of the Law of Attraction as nonsense because they think it means they can sit around all day thinking good thoughts and doing nothing. If that were what it was about, they’d be right. That won’t work to do anything but form a deeper impression onto your couch.

What needs to be done is the mental and spiritual work - the emotional work - to get you in the right frame of mind to then take action with complete power and control. When you first do the work of building yourself up emotionally, and preparing for the road ahead mentally, you are then essentially guaranteed success when the action commences. But the old me would have skipped all that and gone right to the action. The new me prepares first, here’s how.

Envision the Outcome Mentally In Every Detail

Before I do anything, I take some time to visualize accomplishing my goals, and living the results. I’ve purchased my new house dozens of times in my mind. I like to envision myself driving my family through the neighborhood, turning onto our new street, and pulling into the driveway. I see the house as I get closer, and feel the excitement as I know I am pulling into my brand new home. I hear my family’s excitement as we all get out of the car, and my kids race to the front door. I feel the key in my hand as I unlock the door for the first time. And every time I do this exercise, I am overcome with emotion as the front door opens and I see the foyer and grand staircase before me. All of us enter the house excitedly, and quickly disperse to different rooms, looking at everything as if for the first time.

Sometimes I like to visualize further into the future, and live out a typical day in my new home and home office. I see my office and sit at my spacious desk with my brand new Mac computer. I host a Planet Bonehead writers’ meeting in my office, and imagine the layout of furniture in the room that overlooks the backyard through massive windows. After the meeting, I go to my new recording studio in the basement where we do the voice overs for the tv show, as well as all my music recording. Throughout the experience, I imagine interacting with my family throughout the house - meals in the kitchen and dining room, playing and wrestling in the family room, reading at night in my daughter’s bedroom, and relaxing in the master suite.

The more I do this on any subject, the more real it becomes to me. When you can feel something emotionally, you can certainly attain it. Imagine and visualize your dreams over and over again, and they will move closer and closer to reality every time.

Meditate to Quiet the Mind

Of course, I am not immune to my ego. Every once in a while, that pain in the ass gets the better of me, and I seriously begin doubting what I’m doing. I like to imagine my ego as a parasite in my brain, trying to derail everything I’m working on. I don’t understand his intentions, I only know that he’s real, and I am foolish to underestimate him, or not keep him in check.

In those moments when I’ve let my mind wander into some negative thinking or negative self-talk, it can be difficult to jump right into imaginative thinking. “Yeah, right!” is usually what I feel when I try to force my happy thoughts. So instead, I may try to think nothing. Sometimes, it may be helpful to sit quietly (in silence or with some relaxing music) and just clear your head of all thought. Personally, I can’t do this very long, but you may enjoy it. It doesn’t take me long to quiet the negative thinking and quickly replace it with imaginative visions. You may find it helpful to be quiet for a while and think nothing. Either way, you are silencing your ego, and keeping your vibration high to take powerful action.

Appreciate Where You Are Now

As I get moving on my plan to buy this house, it’s pretty easy to see what still has to be done. It’s also easy to see that I am not yet in the house. When you’re working toward something, it’s more important to appreciate where you are and what you have around you now, than it is to measure how far you still have to go. In fact, noticing how far you still have to go does nothing more than make you feel bad that you’re not there yet.

When you start to notice you’re not there yet, a simple way to alleviate that stress is to look around where you are now and find things to appreciate and praise about it. During this journey, my wife and I take time every night to appreciate the things about our current house. It makes us feel good to see the things about this house that we love, and are happy to have right now. This exercise also lifts our spirits and gives us the strength and determination to keep moving forward toward the new house.

In other words, if you are seeing only the fact that you have not yet arrived at your destination, it can be disheartening. This has the effect of slowing you down, making you less determined to move forward. And you feel sad. But if you appreciate what you have now, and pay no attention to the distance ahead of you, it strengthens you to travel that distance. Plus you feel happy.

List Every Way You Can Possibly Succeed

Finally, there’s the action. In any great endeavor, there is action to be taken. Rome was not built in a day by people sitting around thinking happy thoughts about it. It was built over time by people who envisioned it in every detail, and then took action to build it.

So every morning before I get to work, I think of every possible way my plans can succeed; every possible way I can purchase this house before this coming fall. Sometimes, I’ll write down a dozen ideas for actions I can take, people I can call, ways I can earn or find money. If negative ideas pop up, I dismiss them immediately and think of more possibilities.

I do all these things before I do anything. I do these things until I feel invincible, and able to do anything. Then I begin with the actions. Because then my actions have the power of Spirit behind them, and I can accomplish great tasks in little time. The extra pieces of rock begin falling away quickly and effortlessly, until all I am left with is the masterpiece sculpture that I first created in my mind, and now can see and touch.