Hi Everyone,

I just recently joined the Practical Geniuses online course (just doing LL2) and thought I'd post a thread to get some starting advice. I have read a ton of books over the past year about the Law of Attraction, Positive Thinking, Self-Hypnosis, NLP, Sports Psychology, etc, and I just recently read Wattles books (Science of Getting Rich and Science of Being Great.) Anyway, they both seemed so true to me that I decided to investigate more, which is why I joined the course.

I guess what I'm not sure of is how to apply the Practical Geniuses course to my professional career. I've honestly never been too concerned with money in my life (I have never been wealthy, but have always had enough to manage) but my real dream is finding success as a symphony musician. In a way, I have never thought much about money, because I figured that once I succeeded in my career, I know the money would follow. But perhaps I'm going about that in the wrong way.

I intellectually get everything in the book, and agree with it all, but I'm just trying to figure out how to apply it to my present situation. I've done a lot of auditions, and while I know I'm an accomplished enough musician to win, the results are often very erratic, to the point that it's been a bit baffling why sometimes I get positive results and other times I don't. I've been incredibly close to winning a couple auditions as well in the past year, so I know I have the ability. If anyone can give any advice on how to apply these principals in this area, I'd appreciate it. I was planning on just replacing the word "success" wherever it says "money" but if you feel I'm going about this in the wrong way, or if you have any better suggestions, please let me know.

Anyway, thanks in advance for your advice. I'm really glad I found this forum and am looking forward to hearing what you all have to say!

Sincerely,

David

Hi David - Just wanted to say hi and welcome.

I am only relatively new the SOGR myself but my answer would be in your CMI. That's Clear Mental Image. Picture yourself in your final destination. Playing on stage surrounded by the sounds and people that complete your life - not so much dream, it is your life. Don't leave anything out - the shiney shoes?, the sparkling instruments, the inthrawlled crowds (please don't use my pictures, I know nothing of your arena!). Make this picture a part of your reality and leave the rest to the universe.

Search the site for more comments on CMI - to get the picture, if you'll pardon the pun!

Hi and Welcome David.

The measure of success
Since being a symphony musician is your real dream, I suppose you enjoy doing it. When you enjoy doing what you do, you have the passion, which can easily be felt and accepted by others, say, those who give you auditions. You said you were very close to winning a couple times, but not. We are not those people holding the auditions, so nobody here can say anything about your performances. But when you attach the meaning of "success" to winning the auditions, it's kind of giving power to what you can't control. You know, J. K. Rowling was rejected many times before someone agreed to publish "Harry Potter"...(I was going to type some more examples, but then I had this idea of watching again Rowling's 2008 Harvard commencement speech and I took a 20 minutes break from this forum... If you haven't watched it, I recommend this powerful and heartening speech where she talks about fringe benefits of failure and power of imagination: http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_ro...its_of_failure.html).

Let me steal Rowling's line and say this to you: When you have no idea how far the dark tunnel has extended, and the light at the end of the tunnel is hope rather than reality, at least you have your music! If this doesn't ring true to you, please do whatever you can right now to "work on" money success.

quote:

I intellectually get everything in the book, and agree with it all, but I'm just trying to figure out how to apply it to my present situation.

Since you mentioned self-hypnosis in your list of books you read last year and I happen to be good at it, and since you've intellectually already got it, you could set intention of connecting with higher power, inner teacher, higher self, or whatever works the best for you, use self-hypnosis to put yourself into trance, ask questions, stay in trance but open your eyes, and write down all the answers from that connection. It may surprise you what wisdom you can get from yourself. Try it, it's easy, and fun.

I’ve been studying this ‘stuff’ for many years, with many teachers. And thru it all I’ve looked for some common idea they all espouse. One thing that they all, in some way, seem to come to is: feeling is the secret. I’ll try to explain.

When you become very ‘practiced’ in the feelings of having what you want, you create the inner reality that compels the outer reality into your experience. (Of course, this is both for what you want and also for what you fear or don’t want. So, you need to resolve any unwanted feelings with things you want.)

To me, SOGR should have gone into enough depth about this, but it does say:

“In the mental realm, enter at once into full enjoyment of the things you want.” “See the things you want as if they were actually around you all the time. See yourself as owning and using them. Make use of them in your imagination just as you will use them when they are your tangible possession.” Wallace Wattles, in Chapter 8 of the Science of Getting Rich

And also:

“Your part is to intelligently formulate your desire for the things which make for a larger life and to get these desires arranged into a coherent whole, and then to impress the whole desire upon the formless substance which has the power and the will to bring you what you want.” Wallace Wattles, in Chapter 8 of the Science of Getting Rich

I believe when Wattles says to “impress the whole desire upon the formless” he means, like many others teach, practice, over and over, the FEELINGS you would experience should you already HAVE what you want.

Why do I believe our FEELINGS are so important? I’m a student of psychology, and one of the basic tenets of that field seems to be, we FEEL what we believe to be true (whether it’s factual or not). So, our FEELINGS tells us what we REALLY believe, about our chances for success or not, etc.

Practice FEELING success, “Enter at once into full enjoyment of the things you want,…”

Phil

Hey Everyone, thanks so much for your replies and advice. It's so greatly appreciated and very helpful! I'll work with these ideas over the next couple of weeks and see where it takes me. If anyone thinks of anything else to add, please do. I'm always open to new suggestions!

Thanks again!

David

quote:

I have read a ton of books over the past year about

David, I find a big CLUE here in your initial post and now in your response that you're going to "work with these ideas."

You've just barely begun the PG course and when you signed up, you agreed to let go of other courses, teachings, books, etc. for the duration of this course so that you could FOCUS.

That's actually an essential part of this course.

Another essential is that this course, this process, is not about stuffing new information into your head. It's about going slowly and going WITHIN, because that's where all YOUR answers already are.

How would you expect to know how to apply the course you have not yet taken to your professional career or anything else? Here's MY best advice: Relax.

Relax into all of this. That's key. Give yourself that gift. Take your time with EACH LifeLab and, as our pal Wally says, just ponder and contemplate. Watch your thoughts. Let things sink in and ask yourself questions that take you in the direction you want to go.

Then be willing to be surprised by what shows up.

(Really, this course -- and Wally's whole teaching -- is more about what we can let go of than about adding more, in terms of beliefs and so on.)