“Take a look around you tell me what you can see. I guess it all depends on exactly what you want it to be”

And while you’re thinking about that, here is a story that I just received from Steve Chandler:

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready. As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

“I love it,” he stated with enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” he replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged, it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.”

And here’s a segment from one of my favorite shows, “The Point” showing Oblio’s and Arrow’s encounter with the Rock Man in the pointless forest:

Here are the seven levels:

7-Mastery
6-Experience
5-Discipline
4-Individual
3-Aspiration
2-Mass
1-Animal

Starting at the lowest level of awareness to the highest, here are brief descriptions of each level:

1-Animal: This level of awareness is the stimulus-response level, also known as the reactionary or the fight, flight or freeze level. There is very little, if any, thought at this level.

2-Mass: At this level, an individual is concerned about what others think about them. And it’s not what others actually think, it is what they think others think. Comments like, “what will the neighbors think”, “what will my parents think” are common questions asked at this level. This is the conforming level of awareness, or the “following the crowd” level. It is where the majority of people live their lives.

3-Aspiration: I like to call this level the “caterpillar” level. Imagine a caterpillar walking along a branch towards a leaf for a little dinner. While the caterpillar is eating the leaf, he says to himself, “I think I’m meant for more than this.” As a person starts to read quality information or listen to others with quality information, like Wallace D. Wattles, Jack Canfield, Michael Beckwith, Bob Proctor, Napoleon Hill and others, that person starts to realize that there is something more that they’re capable of.

4-Individual: After aspiring to something better, this person begins to acknowledge that he is a worthwhile, amazing individual that is capable of amazing things. But this level, by itself, won’t cut it. The individual level is intimately tied to the fifth level.

5-Discipline: This level is absolutely critical to the person who has aspired to break away from the Mass level of awareness. Without disciplining oneself to take action, there will be insufficient force to make that break from the Mass. It’s similar to the gravitational force of a planet, such as earth. Earth has a very large mass and therefore has a very strong gravitational force that keeps things on its surface. In order to break away from the gravitational force of the earth, a rocket has to have tremendous thrust. That thrust is similar to the discipline required for an individual to break away and actually do the things they have aspired to.

6-Experience: As the individual applies the discipline and does those things that will elevate him to new levels, the experience gained will reinforce that person’s awareness of his own abilities. This reinforces the individual and discipline levels of awareness and leads to greater and greater accomplishments. “That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do. Not that the nature of the thing has changed, but that our ability to do has increased.”

7-Mastery: At this level of awareness, there is a higher level of thought. This is where a person will respond instead of react. A person will stop and think; think and act. At this level of awareness, there is a higher level of humor, creativity, enthusiasm, excitement, love and gratitude.

In the Science of Getting Rich book, it talks about “Thinking Stuff”. Huh?!? It’s only when you dig under the concept of “nothing”, that you start to see the secret behind this “magic”. Wallace Wattles specifically states, “There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made and which, in its original state, permeates, penetrates and fills the interspaces of the Universe. A thought in this substance produces the thing that is imagined by the thought.”(Emphasis mine). Further, “You can form things in your thought, and by impressing your thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing you think about to be created.”

So when you think about anyone “creative”, such as artists, architects, etc, this concept starts to become clearer. What they imagine becomes real. It is the true act of creation. But the truth is, we can ALL do it. Steven shared an excerpt from Jim Rohn that illustrates this. He talked about how he used to take his friends on a tour of his house, BEFORE it was built. It was completely real, just hadn’t been “created” yet. And it was humorous to visualize him standing on an “empty” lot, showing his friends around.

Rohn explains the exact process where something becomes nothing:

1 -  Ideas & Imagination: (Imagine the Possibilities) This is the beginning, because thoughts are things. Just because the house hadn’t been built yet, didn’t make it any less real, as Jim would take his guests through it, describing the fireplace, the kitchen, and the very real picture window!

2 -  Believe what you imagine is possible for YOU: You CAN create. If you think about it, we ALL have practice doing just that!

3 -  Go to work and make it real: Time to start making it tangible.

4 -  Disciplined activity: If anything truly becomes manifest physically, it takes the discipline to see it through to completion.

So now the question is: What will YOU create? What have you ALREADY CREATED through your ideas and imagination? Are you ready to make it real? Follow these steps, and truly “Create Something From Nothing”.

Thanks to everyone who was there this week, and everyone’s insights. This is but one small example of the valuable information we get every week. One reason I rarely miss a week of our club is the very insightful feedback from everyone.  I encourage anyone who resonates with this to join us! What new people will I get to meet NEXT week? You?

Dave Christensen