Are you ready for the success that you desire? Thinking realistically, are you prepared body, mind and spirit for what potentially lies ahead? I have already talked about mapping out your route and honing in on your target, but are you ready for the success that you have visualized? Here are five ways to prepare.

First, you need to prepare your mind. Are you giving your brain the stimulation that it needs to grow? This can be done through reading, audio (tapes, cd’s, MP3’s, etc) and through seminars. It also is done through brainstorming sessions and mastermind groups. As an individual you can only do so much to prepare yourself, but if you are surrounded by like-minded people, your growth will be exponential.

Second, prepare yourself physically. This is an aspect that many people are guilty of ignoring. It is paramount to take care of the temple which houses that mind that you are preparing in step one. Not only will you be more alert and absorb information faster, it has been proven that endorphins released during exercise give you a feeling of well being. That will serve you.

Third, find a mentor or a coach. It has been proven time and again, that if you have someone in your life that can help to guide you, you will get further faster. Role models can serve in the same function, do what they have done and emulate their efforts and success is nearly assured. It helps more if you get interaction.

Fourth – and I touched on this in the introduction – figure out your plan and execute. Don’t allow distraction and don’t lose focus. Too often people have great ideas, but too many of them. Then none of the ideas get the attention they deserve and the result is limited success in a variety of things, rather than great success in one or two areas. Focus is a huge part of success.

Fifth, do not neglect your spiritual side. Do not get me wrong, I am not a religious man, nor do I disparage anyone that is. We all need to find the path that enlightens us. Many people are spiritual without being religious and many people with deep religious convictions are also very spiritual. Nurture your higher self. Focus on the positive in all things, and express gratitude for the people in your life that support you, and the blessings of the physical that surround you.

~~~~

do you want to change your life and you don’t know where to start? Check out 10 minute transformation.

is 10 minutes too much time to drastically change your life?

We are shaped by what we think. What we think is directly influenced by what we read, listen to and watch. So the environmental factors we choose, define our thinking. What does that mean?

As we are growing up, most of us have some reflection of our parents’ thinking. It might be a direct reflection, “Oh, Dad thinks X, so I’ll think X” or an opposing reflection, “I’ll think Y then.’ But as we mature we start to be influenced by friends, teachers and the media. If we lean slightly one way or the other – conservative or liberal to use the common terms, we may start to listen to Rush Limbaugh or Al Franken (in his radio days) and then we begin to adapt what we like or shudder as we think, oh, no, that’s just wrong.

So we gravitate towards people we tend to agree with, and that’s a normal thing. But if you get into the trap of “group think” then things start to go awry. Suddenly ALL you are listening to is Rush and the people he recommends. You can exclude those whose opinion differs and begin to classify them as ‘the enemy’ or think of them as stupid.

I was talking to a friend about Ellen Goodman, the ‘liberal’ columnist, and she said to me, I stopped reading her because I agreed with everything she was saying. It wasn’t challenging my beliefs, so what do I get out of reading it. Most people never get to that point. If you are nodding every time you read something, or hear something, you aren’t growing.

If you automatically shut off if Rush is on, you are denying any possibility that he’s right about anything. This is the danger zone. We all have to realize that the labels of conservative and liberal are too vague. Most of us have elements of both within us. I believe in small government staying out of my business, but that business also includes reproductive options. I believe we should ‘save the whales’ but I also think guns don’t kill people, people kill people. (Guns sometimes aid in that, but if you want to kill, you can figure out a way.) Start reading things you don’t agree with, and step out of your shoes and think about the other person’s perspective.

Well, I’ve been working since August as the Inspiration Scout for the Get Inspired! Project and it’s been a great experience. Touching base with lots of folks and finding inspirational people for Toni to interview.  A few highlights for me (people I’ve ‘found’) have been interviews with Behnam Bakhshandeh , Werner Berger , Lee Cockerell , Bob Doyle ,

Maggie Lancy , Linda Oh, Paul Reth, well, forget it, the list just keeps going. I think some of the coolest interviews, like you can tell by these few names, are pretty much unknown folks just doing inspiration work. Not really looking for publicity, just doing what they do.

And an interesting thing they have in common is they mostly thought, well, I’m not really inspiring. I wouldn’t have any idea who I inspire. That is amazing. But I guess it is sort of an ego thing. Who do I inspire? That’s for other people to say, not for me.

Anyway, another exciting interview today, I think, especially for me, as a writer. And a topper, he’s one that I contacted, so it’s a bit like a coup. Pulitzer Prize Winner Leonard Pitts Jr. It’s a great interview.

Anyway, different interviews hit different people, so I am listing all of them, alphabetically here (it’s in my blogroll area on the front page, as well.)

I have been crazy busy and racking my brains to write 100 articles in 100 days for my Ezine Articles account. There are a lot of reasons for this, mainly as a self-promotion tool. I have been loathe to submit articles to places because it’s just building their content and cementing their web stats and all that, but I had an aha moment after I connected with Connie Ragen-Green. She makes a really nice living through writing articles and re-purposing them and I have signed up for her tutelage.

Ezine is the biggest article marketing site on the internet and I’ve been using them a bit to help feed traffic to my sites (including this one) but I hadn’t really realized how to use them effectively and that’s where Connie came in. Simply by pointing me to a few tools on keywords and making me rethink my articles there, I have submitted 15 new articles in the past ten days. And the amazing thing, to me anyway, is that I have already gotten 516 views and 90 clicks from google. Pretty awesome numbers for a short period of time, plus the visitors to my 10 minute transformation site have doubled since I started.

Trying to come up with fresh new ideas for articles was one area I thought I’d have some trouble with, but just scanning the paper daily, plus various websites I visit – all those have made me realize there are so many things to write about, and the words have really started to flow. Very cool. Now I just need to transfer some of that energy to my script and the musical and I’ll be aces.

Stranger in a Strange Land

One of my favorite books of all times is Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. He was a genius and often is referred to as the father of science fiction. He and Isaac Asimov put so much more than sci-fi into their books and both were amazingly prolific writers. You can argue that some of their ideas on society and relationships or the role of government were too far out there. I might agree, but for plot characters and emotion, they were the shit.

I really didn’t plan on talking about the books or philosophies of the authors, but more on one point talked about briefly in “Stranger.” Mike Smith, the main character, was raised on Mars and was weak in Earth’s gravity. However he had amazing mind-body connection. After a few weak weeks on Earth he turned into an Adonis with muscles that would be the envy of any gym rat. When asked about how he developed those muscles he said “I thinked them.”

Literally with his mind, he knew he needed to be stronger and sub-consciously he directed his body to grow and be stronger. I don’t think this is far fetched. No, I don’t think we can just direct our bodies to be one way and overnight we are that way, but our mind has much more impact than we generally think.

Whether you want a better self image, improved self-esteem or a better shaped body, it all starts inside your mind. The first step is believing that change is happening, fleshing out a new picture in your mind and making yourself believe that it is coming to be.

If you truly take this belief into your heart, mind and soul, it will come to be. Maybe not overnight and maybe not in the manner you initally envisioned, but it will come to be. When you step in front of a mirror, you should hold that future image in your head along with the steps to attain it. Hold the vision true and steadfast.

Example of a vision attained, but not in the expected manner. I have been working online, doing my writing thing and trying various methods of making money, in the expectation that sooner or later my income would be sufficient online that I would not need a traditional job. In the past few weeks, out of the blue, from efforts made years or months ago, suddenly money is showing up in my mailbox and directly deposited into my bank account.

I won’t lie, it’s not enough to sustain my lifestyle, but it suddenly is a stream of income. Passive income. Work done once, pays for a long time. Beautiful and not expected, but envisioned. Hey, maybe one day my book royalties will take off too, you never know.

But getting back to “thinking your body” we just need to hold fast to what we want, keep the vision in our heads and take steps to make it so.

(for more on creating a vision board, one strategy for visualization, check out my youtube video on the subject)

The last scene for the film Bite Nite was shot on Sunday afternoon, just prior to the Super Bowel. Wow, did I just write bowel instead of bowl? Did you know that super bowl is copyrighted and radio stations and talk shows, dj’s and all those sorts of folks aren’t even supposed to use the phrase super bowl? That’s why they say things like “The Big Game” and other nonsense. That is actually true, not something I made up. Really! For once the game wasn’t a blow out (those games would fit the super bowel phrase) It was great seeing the Saints win it all. I love when underdogs win. Speaking of underdogs…

Bite Nite. This is where I started and dagnabbit I am going to write about it now. We filmed the groundbreaking scene to build the hospital, which is quite a climax in this film, I must say. I had the ‘brilliant’ idea for someone to make a snow angel to celebrate the occasion, and they thought it would be funny if the priest did that. Of course, I didn’t agree, but there I was in my nifty white collar making a snow angel. Woowee that’s comedy there, I tell ya.

Father Fangula

I have a couple shots of me as Father Fangula. (What a name. Since I was fighting the vampires in this spoof, maybe I should have been Father DeFangula, but I didn’t write this one) One of the shots is me conducting the eulogy for one of my dearly departed Vangels. (that’s a girl child who is the offspring of a human woman and a vampire) sort of a Vamp – Angel. (again, I did not make this up)

The ground breaking scene was shot with an actual LA actress who was flown in for the part. Lara Cardinal. I’d never heard of her, but she’s the “queen of the B movie screamers” or some such title. She was very nice and the group of us (the talent – oh, yeah) had an interesting conversation. I came up with a great line for a werewolf to say to his date “play your cards right and there could be a new fur coat in this for you” (now that’s funny)

I think the release date for this movie is October  – timed for Halloween – and it’s a straight to DVD thing, although we may have a local premier – renting a theater for cast, friends family and kind critics.

Eulogy Scene

We had an appearance last night on BCTV (local cable channel) on the Berks Arts Council show with Connie Leinbach. It was a great appearance. She did some interviewing and then we played three ‘games’ Emotional Symphony, Instead of (I was the guesser) and What Cha Doing? They all went well and the folks in studio really enjoyed it. Folks at home? who know? Maybe it’ll get us more gigs.

Interesting note, when I googled BCTV to check out when the show would be available on line, Dutch Blitzkrieg was in the #1 spot on GOOGLE search. How cool is that? check it out…

Dutch Blitzkrieg - #1 on Google

sooner or later I’ll link to the archived show. (whenever BCTV gets it on archives)

Saturday the 30th was the busy day of shooting for Bite Nite, as far as my character, Father Fangulous was concerned. Of course it had to be one of the most bitter cold days of this winter season.The temperature, with the wind chill factor, was below zero. I could barely feel my feet after a while, and holding the Bible was touch and go. My fingers were half frozen inside my think leather military dress gloves

My first scene was shot at the Laureldale cemetery and I was delivering the eulogy for Maxine, the Vangle, who was terminal and basically was a sacrifice to the serum to cure the turned vampires. Perhaps in the context of the movie that sentence will make sense. Then again, maybe not. And as an independent film, who knows exactly who will see this. It’s going nearly straight to dvd release online. Perhaps a local showing for a premier. Who knows?

the orphanage at San Gwynne

My second scene was a much longer one that was luckily filmed at the orphanage which was a place used to raise the abandoned half-breed vampire girl children, the Vangles. (Vangles, are innocent half vampires, so they are categorized as vampire-angles Vangles, get it? ) It was a seven page shoot, spanning two scenes. Lots of dialogue that neither I nor Adrian (the writer/actor playing the sheriff) had memorized. It was seven pages and I had just received the script the previous Friday. excuses, excuses… We shot for about three hours from various angles and cheated like crazy on the lines. Lots of editing of the angles to make that look good (hopefully)

All in all in was an educational experience and I got a compliment from the sound guy, which was cool, and from the director who said it makes it easy when people know their lines (referring to the eulogy, not the other scene) The other feedback from the director that I got was not to talk or ask questions or suggestions. He got defensive like I was trying to do his job. Live and learn. To his credit he then repeated my suggestion verbatim and then laughed about the whole episode. Lesson learned for me. Be discreet and submissive when making offerings to those above you in the hierarchy.

~~~

On another note I also auditioned for “Location, Location” which is a local film sponsored by the Greater Reading Film Commission. They had me read for the part of the director. I expect to get a role, but who knows what it will be. The cold reading (indoors) was only for that one part, but it was filmed and they will determine roles by look and ability from that one scene. We’ll see what happens. The script is basically a promotional piece for Reading as a filming location, and is written by a friend, Santo Marabella, so I have a connection inside…

Amazing. There is a show on MTV which does not concern strippers, sex, spoiled brats, rich folks (also spoiled brats, just all ages) or some burned out B list rock star or former lead singer of a one hit wonder band. Wow. I mean wow. What’s next for MTV? music videos? That would be an amazing idea, wouldn’t it? A music video channel, maybe call it MVTV. I think I may be on to something there, but I digress.

There is a new show called The Buried Life, which is pretty much a bucket list for a group of twenty-somethings. I am impressed to some degree because these guys graduated from high school and 1) didn’t think the world owed them a living and 2) they had an idea they followed through on.

Lots of people graduate high school and wonder what to do with their lives and either fall into college or some tech school or end up working at a 7-11 (Clerks) or a factory somewhere and thirty or forty years later think, holy shit, what just happened there? I was going to do “X” and instead that got lost in the shuffle.  The saddest cases are folks who never even had an idea of what X was. They find themselves at 50 years old sitting in a wife beater and a pair of boxers griping about where the country is headed and never even registering to vote. Bleh.

So these guys made a bucket list and start filming the fulfillment of it. But the catch is, for every item on the list, they have to help someone else accomplish a dream. Not a bad premise. I’ve never watched the show, but I may give it a go. I haven’t watched MTV in a long long time.

Gotta dig it out

But the premise and title of the show, the Buried Life, comes from an English poet, Matthew Arnold, who (watch out paraphrase ahead) says your dreams and aspirations get buried by the everyday tasks you undertake. Whoa. Ain’t that the truth! So we have to dig it up, can you dig it?

I’m sitting here at home, unemployed, and I think, what the fuck am I doing with my time? Yeah, I write and do improv and ghost hunts and find inspiring people and am doing theater and movies, but you know what? I still have a lot of time that has gone to mahjong solitaire. (at least I’m not playing farm life or zombie wars on facebook, but who am I to critique?)

When I had a full time job, I complained about not having enough time on my hands to do the things I love, the things I am passionate about, but now I’m wasting time? A few days ago I had an epiphany of sorts and am doing more now. More of the writing I love. Thinking about the videos I need to do. Starting to take action. And amazingly it’s already starting to pay off, and work I did literally years ago is starting to give me a small passive income. That’s the stuff.

I’m not making a bucket list. I know what I want to do. Now it’s time for even more action. (and an occasional game of Mahjong, we all need mindless diversions)

Well, Steve Jobs and Apple have finally revealed their version of the e- reader, named The iPad. So clever those lads and lassies at Apple are. But what if they decide to enter the fierce battle of feminine hygiene products? They are going to be stuck for a name then, aren’t they? Suddenly got caught with yer panties down, then don’t cha Steve? Don’t say I didn’t warn you (slightly too late, yeah, that’s true)

So will the flattened large iPhone really compete with the Kindle and the Nook? (we know it won’t compete with the Nook-E.)

The major flaw in the iPad has already come to light and it is (trumpets please, and then a drum roll) dust. Yes, dust is the downfall of the mighty iPad. But Apple-ites, don’t fret. Steve has already started working on a solution, and yes you knew he would. It’s already in prototype and I managed a sneak picture of it….

i Blow

yes folks, that’s right (and they got this name dead on. It’s the iBlow and it’s all the brain child of the head honcho at Apple. woo hoo. Hopefully, this app will take off and make some money for them, we know they’re hurting (yeah, right)

Luckily, this app will work on PC’s, macs or any electronic device. Yes, an affordable mapple product. can’t wait to order mine.

Newest item from Apple as covered on CNN Tech

um, this is a joke.. don’t go looking to order from apple, although I may be able to throw a couple together in my basement.