I want to get ideas from you guys about how you visualize your successes.

What do you see?

What do you feel?

I'm in the movie business. As I said in a previous post, I always see my finished projects in the movie theatres or on TV. I see people enjoying my stuff. I feel excited.

I see myself very successful. Living in a big house. Kids and everything. Traveling around the world with my movies.

What other things should I be visualizing?

Mylesaway

mylesaway--

I don't know if this is the most effective way there is, but I've been having success by clearly focusing on words which have an emotional charge for me. So the visualization of the particulars shifts some each time I imagine it, but the emotions are very concrete for me.

One I'm working on now includes feeling "grounded, radiant, and certain." It's kind of the seed. As I look over the statement to visualize and use my other senses in imagining, these words are the springboard that allow me to jump.

And: I like your image of an audience laughing and enjoying themselves. I think I'll put that into mine. In the past, I've tried to focus on audience coming into the performance space . . . but this hasn't gotten the results I've wanted. So--thank you!

Ilana

Hi All,
Good question of Mylesaway. I had difficulties for years, and have still not mastered visualizing. Shakti Gawain write a wonderful book about it, and there are other authors.
I think it helps if you put yourself "in the mood" for i, ie. through meditation or a meditation tape, or a meditation class.

If you read The Lord of the Rings, you are visualising middle earth, but if you have seen the film, you visualise the Golem quite easily!

It helps if you find key-words in your written visualisation, and expound on them and link it with earlier memory(ies). EG you said you feel excited.... what does that mean? like your first kiss? or ?
Visualisation is a spiritual activity and the first part of the creative sequence.Adding emotions to that energises, speaking aloud affirms, and finaly acting upon it manifests!

Do not forget to link the visualisation with ACTION that you must/will/commit to undertake.
Without action all remains a daydream.

Good luck, and keep soggering! You'll learn more then Rebecca takes credit for!

Blessings!

Ben

Never forget, abundance is our birthright.

Hey guys,

Thanks for your responses. I notice that both of you use or suggest to use words or affirmations in my visualizations.

I guess my question is...when you are visualizing...isn't it better to see things played out in positive way? Isn't it better to see the happy results if I can, rather than just think of words to describe it?

Or am I being too literal here?

Plus, I am a filmmaker so I might just be thinking too visually anyway! I always see a little movie in my head.

I have picked up on the emotional reaction, though. And I am trying to take the time to visualize the results I want along with feeling the emotion of having attained those results.

I've noticed that I have been talking and acting more confidently. And I am seeing some great results, I must say.

This is powerful stuff so let's keep talking about it.

Mylesaway

Hi mylesaway--

Have you been studying Stuart Lichtman at all? He refers to a study that shows people have one of three different dominant ways of percieving the world: visually, audibly, or kinestetically (through touch). It sounds like your main road in is through visuals--but what if you could find a way to also use the two other modalities in your visualizations? You'd have a stronger impact, and reach more parts of your mind.

Personally, I'm more auditory, so hearing words is a good start. I experimented with adding the sense of touch next--that was a little odd, but seemed to have great results. Feeling myself hugging people with excitement after reaching a goal, or writing a check and circling the amount--things like that. I'm a bit spotty with the visuals--or rather, I get them strongly, but they spin off into wild tangents. So it takes a lot of discipline and concentration to keep coming back to the subject I'm supposed to be reinforcing. Also, I've found that the amount of sleep I've had the night before also dramatically influences my ability to stay on top of the visual portions of my visualization.

Also, I like Dutchben's idea of grounding it in some type of physical state, like meditation. I've had luck with combining visualization with shower time.

Let me know what works for you--and you're right, we need to keep talking about this stuff, it is important.

Ilana

Hi Mylesaway and all you wonderful ones.....
You touched on a really important point, Mylesaway. It comes from inside and that means that you do it YOUR WAY ! ! ! You FEEL it YOUR WAY, etc.
My suggestion is to keep on visualizing and keep on reading what Mr. Wattles says about it. I found that when I increased my skill that what he said just kept on making more and more sense.
Most important: enjoy it
Much Love, Joy, and Success to us ALL.......dd

Ilana and DD -

Good advice. Really good tips.

Some observations I've noticed in visualizing...

1. My mind does spin off into tangents rather quickly. But I keep coming back to the initial visual. I can't keep it that long. So that's why I've also been working on the emotional feeling that Wattles and Rebecca talk about. And acting or rather living the dream now in my attitude, etc. This is a new addition to my visualizations, and they seem to work better than what I was doing before.

2. I haven't read Stuart Lichtman, but I was interested in his interview with Rebecca, checked out his sight, got a few emails from him, and am thinking about taking his course after I do this one. I don't want to mix anything with this nor do I think you're suppose to.

It does remind me of a course I took when I was a kid. It was called Silva Mind Control and it combined meditation with techniques on using your brain more to accomplish specific goals.

It's kind of why I was open to this course. Also, a Taoist actually turned me on to this course.

3. I have found since I've been doing this course that I've watched a lot less TV. I'm not interested in it as much. I'm too busy feeling good about things and visualizing as much as possible.

4. I am so tired at the end of the night. Even if I didn't do a lot of physical stuff during the day, I'm trying to work so hard on the visualization that I'm literally getting exhausted. I even had to take off a day on Sunday and not think about anything!

Keep this discussion up. Your comments were helpful and your shared experiences made me feel better about what I'm going through!

Mylesaway

By the way guys...and for anyone who is reading these posts and not writing in...I just read Life Lab 16. Rebecca pretty much anticipated my questions and had a whole lesson planned already.

I feel a little...well...you know.

But the good news is...let's pretend that I had already read Life Lab #16 and wanted to hear about other course members' visualization techniques.

Yeah, there you go!

let's keep this discussion about visualization going. It's been really helpful to learn what others do.

Mylesaway

This is a bit off the subject, but . . .

I've found that over the past year, studying this course, my dreams and daydreams have been more vivid and difficult to ignore. It may be that by actively tapping into visualization, I'm strengthening those muscles, so to speak. Are you getting that too at all?

I mention it because frequently they're negative. It was easier to throw them off or get out of them when they weren't as clear and compelling. Now that they're more captivating, sometimes I get caught up in them.

I think I need to go back and rework deciding on what I want to have in my clear mental image. I shift a lot. I don't know how much is evolving, and how much is being unfocused.

Another challenge is keeping the image during day to day living. It's easy enough now, at 3am when I'm by myself and on the board . . . the tricky bit is not conceeding to others' views of me (appearances) during the day. How to renew the vision?

I think, now that you mention the subject, I should reread Shakti Gawain's book Creative Visualization. It's been about a decade since I have--but I seem to remember her techniques were very easy and do-able.

Also--something Rebecca said (I don't remember where now) early on helped me. She was talking about applying the same process to getting rich that you use on your most successful ventures in life. When I think about putting up a play, all of these steps don't seem mysterious--I know very well how to visualize, make targets, take action every day and leave no task undone. It just gets murky when I think of making money, because upuntilnow, I've had less success at this using these systems. So--you're a filmmaker--perhaps it would be a good exercise for you to review how exactly you go about succeeding at making films. The mental process, I mean.

Take what you know and teach yourself--works for me!

Thanks for all your thoughts. I like your mind!

Ilana

Ilana -

First of all, thanks for your compliments. I appreciate it.

I do think that visualizing and using your brain like we are learning how to do is very much like training a muscle. That's why I mentioned Silva Mind Control in an earlier post. I am not trying to promote their course in any way, I don't know if it even exists anymore, I'm just saying that now that I think about it we did lots of exercises in visualization and expanding the use of our brains. It's also why I am interested in checking out Stuart Lichtman's course. I just don't want to focus on anything else right now except this course because I am having a great time with this and because we were told either by Wally or Rebecca or by both that we shouldn't think of anything else right now.

As to your facing negative stuff during the day...I'm in Hollywood. The City of Dreams is filled with people trying to stomp on your dreams. And I'm a guy who over the 20 years I've been doing this as an actor, writer, director, producer has probably racked up 10,000 "no's." But I keep plugging away.

Since I've taken this course my attitude has changed and maybe this will help you. You are going to succeed at what you do. But when you run into a no or some negativity, it doesn't mean you failed, or even that any of that is true. It just means that this isn't the person who can help you!
And you move on with excitement in looking for someone knew...as if you are about to fall in love.

Now I'm telling you I've seen results with this mind change of mine. It's not just the power of positive thinking. It's something more. I find it has added energy to my step and to my day. I am making tons of more calls, getting out there, and really seeing some results. My whole physical posture has changed. And I'm sleeping better.

Try it. And I was talking to my wife's Christian Science Practitioner. She was telling me under a similar circumstance to reread Psalm 23, you know the Lord is my shephard...Yeah though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me.

Well I laughed when she brought it up to me in the context of my having a hard time selling a project. I had always heard that psalm at funerals, or seen it in movies when they were leading a convicted convict to the electric chair. I never stepped back and thought of it poetically and saw how it could apply to everyday life.

And again, for the last few weeks since that conversation I think it's really helped me. And I am not a religious guy, nor am I Christian.

Let me give you a funny movie to check out. "Ed Wood." Johnny Depp plays the infamous director who went down in history as the man who made the worst movie of all time! It's a black comedy and I think pretty funny even though I usually don't like black comedies.

Anyway there is a scene where Ed Wood is on the phone trying to get a distributor to buy the movie he sent him. You can't hear what the other guy is saying on the phone, you just see Ed Wood smiling and being unflappable. So when he says...

"Did you see my movie? I see. The worst movie you ever saw. Well maybe you'll like my next one."

And he does it with such a smile and without a break...I think he must have read Wally!

As to your comment about seeing your plays that you want to put on but not being able to visualize the money part...I got to tell you, I think you are way ahead of a lot of people who come to this course. I'm speculating here of course, but I got a sense from taking this course that some people have to sit down and think about what they really want to do in their lives and what will make them happy.

I bet you already know the answer to that one. As I did when I started the course. We creative types kind of live in that world.

You just have to work on the next step which is to make money on it. I do too by the way. I put out a movie that did really well and I was broke from it! I actually lost some of my own money!!!

Rebecca answered a previous post of mine by saying that I might have to rethink my definition of success.

So you do too! Also, and I can relate to this, part of being an artist or creative person or theatre person is to feel that you have to struggle for your art.

You don't!!!

Just remember, a lot of these famous artists were actually quite well off, or lived like they did.

I was surprised by this one...Mark Twain was never a poor boy. He grew up in a middle class home. And then became really rich. Lost all his money on stupid investments, and became rich again!

And Abe Lincoln? The log cabin kid...A myth! Always had money, and by the time he was a lawyer in Sprinfield he was very very well off. I just visited his house. I would love to live in something like that!

So this whole struggling thing...forget about it. It ain't true!

Hope this helped ya.

Mylesaway

Hey Myles--

Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. You're absolutely right about not seeing "no's" as rejections, but as the next step towards someone who will say yes. What a powerful tool!

It's about not taking things personally, and remembering that folks are basically good and loveable, and just protecting their soft white underbellies when they say no.

Yeah, I love Ed Wood. Fantastic movie. I swear Depp can play anything. There are days when I related to Mr. Wood quite a bit--"close enough, no one will notice!" (he says, after the actor walks into a wall and the set trembles. Ha!

I suppose that rejections really are a blessing to both sides. You don't really want someone who isn't committed to you and who doesn't believe in you. Sure, the money would be nice from any source--but without that faith, the price is too great. I was reading tonight about how the Wooster Group, who I greatly admire, had a sponser pull out their funding because they didn't get one of their shows and thought that the actors in blackface were racist, rather than being satirical towards racisim. The group wrote a 30 page explaination of their piece, and collected 27 letters of recommendation from artists and community members in defense of the work--no dice. The sponsor decided they were right and didn't want to hear anything else. As hard as it is, when someone doesn't support your work, the best thing you can do is bless them and let them go.

Hmmm . . . wondering if I'm writing that message in general, or for one part of my brain to hear another part speak . . .

I keep running into the Silva Method whereever I turn. It sounds like good stuff--well grounded, easily practiced. Do you know, are there books on it, or do you have to learn from a seminar?

Like you, I'm not inherently a Christian, and yet I've found some guidance from that tradition recently too. Started wearing a cross--I guess stranger things have happened.

Back to visualization--I start strong, but unless I keep a very tight leash, the images get away from me quickly. Think I may need more practice. Words help keep it in line--they give the sessions more positive direction. Also, if I'm visualizing something negative in my head without realizing it, words are the quickest way for me to cancel out those images. "I choose peace" or "I love life" or "I'm so grateful for x" are all lifelines straight back home.

Thanks so much for your thoughts.

Say--do you think it might be fun to start a MasterMind group based on combining creative endeavors with SOGR? I think I tried to start one once but there weren't too many takers. Maybe we could try again?

Ilana

I have got quite a lot out of your conversations, especially on how to be positive about the people who say "no" to us.

Just thought I would say thanks for sharing.

Cheers
Denise

Thanks guys for more nice comments.

Ilanalydia -

1. I went to the Silva Mind Control website and the programs are still going strong. You do have to start with a 2 day seminar.

But enough about them! Let's finish this course first over the next couple of months because I see this as a more important foundation before we spring to other things.

In other words, Silva Mind Control gives you a very useful technique on visualization which will go nicely with what we're learning here. But we should first take advantage of everything Rebecca has to offer us so we have a strong foundation before we move on to personalizing our thoughts and techniques.

2. What do you have in mind for creative endeavors? I have lots of movie/DVD/TV projects I'm working on or trying to work on in which I'm using what I'm learning in this course.

Are you suggesting getting a few of our heads together to run with a single project?

Hmmmm. Very interesting.

Let me know and we'll talk further.

Mylesaway

I am really enjoying the conversations among all of you! I would like to throw in a thought about the "no" issue... A friend of ours, Jim Britt, once said to us while we were at a seminar that he was presenting that the trick to staying in focus is to "play with whoever shows up". IF you feel that you are delayed by the person who shows up, it just may be that the delay is only long enough for the right person to find you... I believe this has helped me along... maybe it will you, too.

Patchka... aka Pearl

quote:

---

I went to the Silva Mind Control website and the programs are still going strong. You do have to start with a 2 day seminar.

But enough about them! Let's finish this course first over the next couple of months because I see this as a more important foundation before we spring to other things.

---

... that you have committed up-front that for the duration of this course you will NOT go running off after other programs, systems, etc. and won't bring them into THIS discussion.

Wally is very clear about the WHY of this. And if you don't want to keep that commitment or have finished with the course and are happy with the results you're getting -- well Wally's clear about that, too!

Many blessings, and, of course--
EXPECT Success!
Rebecca

Hi Myles--

I guess there may be a lot of ways we could help each other.

One would be, as you suggest, to partner up on a single creative project. That would be a lot of fun.

Another might be to start a discussion on the private boards about the specific opportunities and discoveries that happen when you combine SOGR with a creative line of work.

Another might be to be a support system to each other--checking in with each other, setting goals, etc--since we'd have similar kinds of experiences going on.

I'm game for anything.

And, I'll open it up: anyone else interested in one of the above?

Ilana

Ilanalydia -

I've been thinking about your suggestions for several days now and I think it would be wonderful to have a place where creative types like you and me...and I know that all of us taking this course are creative types because that's the way we should be thinking...but I mean specifically people who use our new creative way of thinking in the part of the business world traditionally labelled as "the creative industry."

Writing, theatre, film, etc. etc.

You get what I mean, I'm sure. I just don't want to misspeak here or possibly send any sort of signals out or confuse my own mind as to how anybody should be thinking along that Certain Way!

So...what do you have in mind specifically? How do we get started?

Be forwarned...I'm a computer idiot, so I won't be able to set anything up myself!

Let's all focus our energies and help each other...

Maybe we could each bring a specific project to that board. And we tell everyone what that project is. And then we keep checking in every day and tell everyone what happened with that project during the day. And people can comment, or reassure each other, and give tips.

For example you can tell us the specific project you are trying to get started at your theatre company. And every day you will check in with details about what happened with the project during the day. Maybe even your thoughts that you had about the project during the day.

And then we could all talk about it. As well as talk about our project.

Is this the kind of thing you were talking about?

And are we allowed to do this while we are still taking this course? I'm on Chapter 17 so I don't know if I should be doing this or not. What's the rule here?

And what are your thoughts?

Mylesaway

How does that sound?

Ilana,

I would be very interested in your idea for a support system. I have been going through the course in fits and starts. The book I read straight through three times but in doing the course, I think it would be helpful to have more support. I've never used the private boards but I'm sure I could figure it out.
Valerie

Hi myles, Hi Valerie--

Well, I think the easiest thing to do would be to start a Mastermind group. We'd post our proposition in the "Make a Connection" board--so that people who are interested in having a little more support would know to check in there. Then, we'd wait a couple days to see who wanted to be a part of our discussion.

Then, one of us goes to the Private Discussion page, and "invites" (enters the username) all of the people who want to be a part of this. I was a member of a very good MasterMind group about a year ago--it's fun, and addicting--and much more intimate--and there are no restrictions as to what can be shared or posted--and we wouldn't be "taking up others' time" by writing as much as we want. There is one down side: once we've started, the system doesn't allow us to invite in new members. I mean, we could restart the discussion, but new folks have no way of accessing the previous discussion we've already had.

Alternatively, I know Rebecca has suggested Tapioca (is the name right? I think so.) as a list server. Maryatwork started a group on Stuart's book--that seemed to go well. I've never used the service before, so I wouldn't know where to start--but if you want, we can explore that option--I'd even be willing to bumble through the computer set up stuff myself.

As for the content--that sounds EXACTLY like what I need in my life right now. I'm all for it!!! Can't wait!!! A couple of other ideas about how we can support each other, other than checking in with our creative projects (which I love!):

--We could bring up questions or subjects which deal specifically with creating stuff for a living, and/or self marketing--the kind of stuff which might not be as interesting to folks on the main board.

--One thing that was really fun and effective in the last group, was doing a Round Robbin with questions. So every week, one of us would ask a couple of questions (or discussion starters) for the others to think about and sound in with.

--We can check in with each other as to what parts of the book/course we're studying--maybe even go back through the course as a group, comparing notes. That would be cool.

--We can brainstorm on creative ideas. Maybe there is a project out there for just us SOGRs!

Any or all? What do you think?

I'm really psyched. I think this will be fantastic. Thanks so much for being willing to play with me. Such fun.

Ilana

Ilanalydia -

I've been thinking about this idea a lot. And here is what I think would be a very good idea.

Each of us must have at least one project, probably more, than we are trying to set up and get done.

For example, I have this sports comedy documentary I shot about the fans of the worst team in professional sports. I spent a football season covering them.

O.K. What I'm suggesting is that each of us be very specific about our projects and check in with each other every day as to what we did or are doing or thinking about that day concerning making our projects happen.

For example, I was waiting for a famous sports celebrity's lawyers to get back to me. George Foreman.

Well, there are things I could do today that would have been constructive to my project. It so happens that I've been reviewing all the lessons from 1 - 17 and rereading SOGR from the beginning. I was especially inspired by the thought that I should have faith that my desires are already on their way to me.

I attacked this project with purpose today, and rather than wait for Foreman's lawyers to call me today, I moved forward and got my stuff to another sports producer and had a long conversation about the project with him.

Now, I'm not suggesting that any of us can or should give each other ideas or tips about the business. I'm not suggesting that we say to each other...hey, have your agent do blah blah blah.

Nor should we give some general ideas about life or even the business. For example, I was dragged once to a seminar a friend of mine was taking, actually it was guest night at her 10 week course, in Hollywood in which a woman was preaching to her class that they have to network in Hollywood and every writer and actor in her class which cost about $500 should make 10 cold calls to producers and studio execs a day to get work. I found this advice not only wrong, but really really counterproductive to any of these actors' or writers' careers. And when I was partnered off with a young actor to work on our "phone" conversation, I told him that he was wasting his time and he and his friends should put on a play and then get agents and execs to come down and see it. He got very upset with me, and I was politely asked to, you know, leave!

This kind of stuff that was said in the seminar is just general bunk designed to sound smart and really just make the seminar leader a fist load of money.

But we're not generalists here. And we're not dreamers. We're scientists!

So What I am suggesting is that we think about where each of us are at and give suggestions and encouragements and ideas based solely and specifically on the Science of Getting Rich and this course.

For example, maybe someone would suggest a certain visualization that works for them in sales, or another person might suggest rereading chapter 9 in SOGR on Will and suggest ways they think it applies to my dealing with Foreman or moving on to someone else.

Do you see what I'm saying? I want to be very specific about each of our projects because we are suppose to be very specific in our thoughts so we can imprint our desires on the thinking substance.

And I want our conversations and suggestions and help to stay strictly confined within SOGR and the Course for Practical Geniuses.

I think this would be a neat idea. Sometimes something another person says can really be a spark, or someone who is looking into your life can see the clear path better than you can, and help you avoid the stumbles we may all make on our way to becoming masterminds.

Myles

P.S. I have 4 projects I want to bring to the Board. 3 I'm trying to sell. 1 I'm rewriting.