Super Productivity Top 10 Tips

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Productivity

Super Productivity is productivity that not only allows you to get stuff done but to feel super about it.

I have an aversion to pain and suffering.If it is Painful Productivity I don’t want any part of it.

I was reading a blog post that featured some productivity wisdom by Tim Ferris, author of the international best seller The 4-Hour Workweek. I was gratified to see that of the six tips he offered, I always teach 5 to my clients who want to increase productivity.

I’m expanding my thinking these days, so instead of 5,  here are Ted’s Top Ten Tips for Super Productivity.

1. Start the day centered and grounded. Jim Rohn said “Either you run the day, or the day runs you.” How you start the day will affect how your day goes. If you wake up and you are already rushing around and running late, the day is running you. Give yourself some space to be prepared mentally and feel super  in the morning, even if it means getting up earlier to exercise, read or meditate.

2. Write down your goals the night before. Make your to do list the night before. Plan to start the next day with the most important things that will make the biggest difference, or start with the hardest. This way, you move into the day with momentum and the feeling of productivity and being super!

3. Keep yourself fed and watered. I have an avocado tree and a tangerine tree in my back yard. If I don’t water them and feed them, they don’t produce. Same with you.

4. Have a routine or a system. Develop a habit of productivity by using a system that works for you. It might include a Franklin Covey type planner, Outlook tasks, or one of the many online tools available. I use the Pomodoro Technique and a daily calendar sheet with my list that I carry around in my shirt pocket. Not very high tech but it super works.

5. Prioritize tasks. Some days you are not going to be able to do it all. Prioritization maximizes your productivity and focus so that you get the most super important stuff done. Roll the non-essential stuff over to another day.

6. Pay someone to do those things that are not worth your time. What can you take off of your plate by paying someone else to do that gets paid less per hour than you do? For 10 bucks week, my super gardener does in 45 minutes what it used to take me 3 hours to do.

7. Work simultaneously instead of sequentially. Instead of working on something  for four hours, work on it for an hour and half, then another project for an hour,  then another for an hour or so.  Be moving a number of projects forward a the same time. Waiting to start the next one until the current one is done is a super productivity killer.

8. Get rid of distractions. Turn off email, Facebook and silence your phone while you are working on a task. These are the biggest time vampires that will suck the productivity out of you. Work for an hour, then take 15 minutes to return calls or email. One guy I know has a phone message: “I return calls between 4 and 6 pm”, thus setting the expectations of his callers as to when their call will be returned. Guard your time like the super precious asset it is.

9. Be ok with failure. Dan Kennedy says “Success is cooked up in a messy kitchen.” Don’t wait for conditions to be super, or perfect, or for your desk to be organized or the moon to be full. Just start and keep moving forward. Things might get screwed up, you may need to scramble, improvise, or start over. Sometimes that’s what it looks like.

10. Take a break. Being super productive doesn’t mean killing yourself or not spending time with loved ones. Productivity doesn’t necessarily mean struggle either. Play some music, take a walk, call a friend, eat some ice-cream, then get back to it refreshed and renewed and feeling super good!

Need help with productivity or procrastination? I’d love to help you. Click here to contact me. And, to hear my podcast of this blog, check out my podcast TedinYouHead.com episode 65.

Your companion on the path to possibility,

Ted

 

Self Hypnosis Class Starting June 14: Master Your Mind

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Self hypnosis

Why is permanent change so hard?

The answer is because only 12% of your mind (conscious) wants to change.  Your subconscious mind, which is 88% of your mind, wants to stay the same. What your subconscious mind wants is based on your childhood conditioning, past experiences and beliefs.

You have the ability to change your subconscious programming using self hypnosis.  You’ll have an opportunity to learn self hypnosis at my upcoming Self Hypnosis for Success Class at Pasadena City College starting June 14th. Click here to register.

Self hypnosis is  used by celebrities, athletes, performers, business people, salespeople, and entrepreneurs. Why? Because they know that to achieve high level success in any endeavor, you must master your mind. You must take control of what you think, because you become what you think about.

 Learn Self Hypnosis for Success!

  Self Hypnosis for Success begins Saturday, June 14th from 9 am to 10:30 am at Pasadena City College and continues for the next two Saturdays (6/21 and 6/28). To register, click here.

Master your mind using self hypnosis to:

  • Have the correct mindset and attitude for success in business and personal life.
  • Get rid of procrastination that keeps you stuck and in a rut.
  • Feel less self-conscious and more relaxed and confident in social and professional situations.
  • Increase sales through higher confidence and less call resistance.
  • Get relief from stress, anxiety and fear.

Master your mind and put it to work for you! Click to register 

In Self Hypnosis for Success, you will learn:

  • How to put yourself into hypnosis.
  • How to use the power of  suggestion to re-program your subconscious mind.
  • How to put it all together to create a mind conditioned for success in just a few minutes a day.

If you are one of those people who know that the quest for self improvement is never ending, you’ll want to register for Self Hypnosis for Success by clicking here.

Hope to see you on June 14th,

Ted

Image by Skye Moorhead

Exploring the Music of Your Life

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Music of your life

Sie klingen nicht das gleiche! (They do not sound the same!)

I just finished an online course exploring the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. ( I was a music major in college.)

Before the course started, I purchased a collection of all the sonatas and started listening to them. I enjoyed them because I like classical piano music. But they all sounded the same to me. Each one was like the others.

The class started and I learned what a piano sonata is (a solo piano work in one or more movements). I learned why they are called sonatas (first movement is usually in sonata form).  I learned to identify movements in rondo, variation and scherzo forms.

Soon, I was able to distinguish the unique characteristics of each of the 32 sonatas. I began to recognize the repetition of certain musical patterns. I came to understand how Beethoven constructed his most important sonatas in ways that stretched the boundaries of  classical composition established by Haydn, his teacher,  and Mozart.

Before I took the Beethoven course, the sonatas would’ve made nice background music. Now, I can appreciate them for the genius that lies within them, the underlying structures so precisely crafted, and the musical themes that allow us to know Beethoven through the emotional content of his music.

This exploration of Beethoven’s music gave me distinctions. This is the basic pattern of learning. We attempt to understand something, and as we continue to explore, we begin to develop various distinctions, which allows us to see more clearly into a thing or situation.

If you are a chef, you have distinctions for cooking that most people don’t have, such as bard, parboil and zest. If you are a building contractor, you can look at a building and identify things that non contractors don’t see, like astrigal molding, blind stops and collar beams.

Exploring the music of your life is your own personal development.

Once you begin to explore the music of your life, that is, to make a study of your own process in an attempt to understand why your life “sounds” the way it does, then you can begin so see more deeply into how your life is constructed. More importantly,  you can identify aspects of your life that flow, and those that do not.

You might learn what triggers you to anger, what makes you sad, and what leaves you powerless. You can identify hidden fears that keep you stuck in patterns that are not pleasing or beneficial to you.

Now you have some distinctions about the music of your life. Amid the noise of our lives we can now hear what stops the flow and creates disharmony. Then, we can become attuned to the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that resonate with the right vibration that allows us to create our lives as masterpieces.

However, this involves a conscious choice to study the music of your life that you have created so far and to understand why it exists in the form that it does. We make this choice out of a desire to create lives of greater harmony,  fulfillment, or excitement. Most of us have the feeling that a radically different experience of life is possible, but we don’t have the distinctions necessary to get there.

Until we choose to create our lives on purpose, we are composers without paper, chefs without recipes and contractors without blueprints. We are at the mercy of what life delivers to us without knowing what do do with it, and we can end up dancing to a tune that doesn’t resonate with us. 

But once we take full responsibility for our life with the aim of exploring what is possible, we can ask “How can I bring together all the parts of the music of my life in a powerful way?” instead of “Why is everything out of tune?”

George Bernard Shaw said “Life is not about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself.”

Are you creating yourself by purposefully composing the music of your life so that the parts fit together beautifully and harmoniously?

Or does the noise and din of your existence make you wish you were deaf? If so, then begin with an exploration of the music of your life. Start with one part that is not in harmony and seek to understand why that part is out of tune.

Devote a month to studying that part of your life, whether it’s your marriage, your job or your internal (mind) experience. Read books and talk to experts. Develop distinctions such as “When this happens, I always do this” or “Thinking about doing that shuts me down” or “I really don’t like this part of myself at all”. Be honest and non-judgmental. The goal is to begin to distinguish what is working and what is not.

The music of your life well lived is the highest art. As Ludwig said: ” Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.”

Ted

The Hypnosis of Belief

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hypnosis of belief

Sir Tristram and la Belle Ysoude drink the potion by Dante Gabriel Rosetti

Dante Gabriel Rosetti was a famous 19th century poet and artist. One day, he was approached by an old man.

The man had some sketches that he showed to Rosetti . He wanted Rossetti to tell him if they were any good.

Looking at the drawings with his expert eye, Rosetti knew right away that they showed no sign of artistic talent. He told the man as much in the most kind and gentle way he could.

The elderly man seemed disappointed but accepted the artist’s verdict.

“May I ask for once more for your opinion?” asked the old man as he showed Rosetti  the work of a younger artist.

Rosetti agreed and looked over this new set of artwork.

This time, however, he could see incredible talent and potential in the drawings.

“These are quite good,” said Rosetti. “This student possesses great talent. If he works hard at his art, his future will be bright. He should be given every opportunity and encouragement to succeed as an artist.

The old man became silent upon  hearing these words.

“Is this young artist your son?”  asked Rosetti.

“No,” said the old man with great sadness.  “This is my work from 40 years ago. A teacher told me back then that I had no future as an artist and I believed him.  I got discouraged and gave up…too soon.  If only I had heard your encouragement then.”

The hypnosis of belief is the invisible hand pulling upon your strings.

It will determine what you do and don’t do. All belief is a form of hypnosis. If you are told something enough times by someone you trust and believe, you will accept it as fact and act accordingly.

  • If you believe making lots of money is a sin, then you will stay poor.
  • If you believe that your cause is worth fighting for, then you will fight and maybe even die.
  • If you believe you can, you will. If you believe you can’t you won’t.

There are few universal truths that stand on their own. Almost all of what we hold to be true is true only because we believe it. We are under the hypnosis of belief.

Our beliefs are mostly created by ideas given to us again and again by authority figures such as parents and teachers. It’s not long before we can only see the experiences that support and keep those beliefs in place.

How do you know that we are on a planet in a solar system held  together by a force called gravity? You don’t. Someone told you and you believed them. (Gravity is a theory and has not been “proven”)

So what’s the point?

Once you understand the hypnosis of belief, and that all belief is hypnosis, then you accept that your belief is not truth and is subject to change. So now, you are free to believe whatever you want, as long as it works for you, which means that your belief influences your actions in a way that gives you the life you want.

Second point: you get to evaluate and choose what beliefs work for you, and in the process, let go of beliefs that don’t resonate with you any longer. You understand that as you grow in wisdom and experience your beliefs should change.

Third, and most important, you become cause in the matter of your life. You become the creator of your life. You become responsible for your own beliefs, because you chose them. Then, based on those beliefs, you behave or take actions in a way that creates the life you desire.

However, most folks have it backwards. They take actions that don’t work, based on the hypnosis of beliefs that are outdated and no longer in alignment with their desires. This is a recipe for frustration and unhappiness.

Most of what I do as a hypnotherapist is to de-hypnotize people from the hypnosis of beliefs that create unhappiness such as:

  • I can’t quit smoking. 
  • I can’t lose weight.
  • I’m too afraid to do that.
  • Life is a struggle. 
  • I’m not good enough.

These are all beliefs that when taken as truth, will stop you cold. Changing those beliefs can allow you to move forward.

I challenge you to try this exercise. Write down all the things you believe are true. Write down your most cherished beliefs. Next to each one, answer the question: how do I know this? Examine, and question each one. If it’s time to let one go, do so. If it works for you, keep it. If it’s something you need to think about some more, then do that. You will probably never free yourself from the hypnosis of belief, but you can be aware of it and make it work for you.

The most important thing is to be awake and refuse to abdicate your own authority to anyone or anything. This is your life. You get to choose what to think and believe. Choose wisely.

Ted

The Power of Your Beliefs

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The power of your beliefs

Once there was a young man sitting on a park bench worried sick. He owned a business and had gotten himself into a huge amount of debt.

He could see no way out of his predicament. He was being harassed by his creditors and his vendors were demanding payment.

Suddenly, an old man sat down on the bench next to him.

“You look like you have the weight of the world on you, young fellow,” asked the old man. “What’s wrong?”

Happy to share his problems with someone, and with nothing to lose, the young business owner told the old man about his dire financial situation as the stranger listened in silence.

When he was finished, the old man said, “I believe I can help you… what’s your name?”

Quickly pulling out a checkbook, the old man wrote out a check and pressed it into the hands of the young business owner.

“I’ll meet you here in exactly one year and you can pay me back then. I believe you can do it!”

With that the old man slipped away as quickly as he’d come.

The young business owner looked closely at the check. His jaw dropped in disbelief as he realized that it was a check for $500,000 – signed by John D. Rockefeller – at the time, one of the richest men alive!

The young man knew that check would erase his money troubles in an instant! But after thinking about it for a moment, he decided he would put the un-cashed check in his safe for the time being.

Just knowing that he had a check for $50,000 gave him a renewed feeling of optimism and energy about saving his business.

With a huge boost to his confidence, he renegotiated the deals with his vendors to buy some time.

He negotiated with his creditors as well for much lower settlements than what he owed.

Now that he had a little breathing room, he closed several big deals. Within a year, he was back on his feet again and was running a successful business.

Exactly one year from when he met the old man, the young man went to that same park bench. In his hands was the un-cashed check.

Right on time, the old man also arrived at the park bench.

“Dear sir” began the young man as he started to hand over the un-cashed check to the old man. Just then, a nurse came running up behind him.

“I hope he hasn’t been bothering you,” she exclaimed. “He keeps slipping away from the rest home and telling everyone he’s John D. Rockefeller! I’m SO sorry!

With that the nurse led the old man away, leaving the young man completely  flabbergasted.

For an entire year, he had been wheeling and dealing with faith and power because he believed he was backed by half a million dollars – given to him by one of the world’s wealthiest men!

Of course, it was simply his renewed sense of confidence that gave him the power to achieve his goals.

Where did this renewed sense of confidence come from?

  • Not from more money in the bank.
  • Not from a radical change in his skills or talents.
  • Not from anything outside of him changing.

His renewed sense of confidence came from the only thing the old man gave him: a new belief which replaced the belief that he was defeated.

This belief was not based on reality. It was not a belief he cultivated nor consciously chose. It was given to him in the form of a useless piece of paper. But because of this belief, he was able to radically change his life.

You just have to stand in awe of the incredible power of beliefs.

Like the young man, most of our beliefs are given to us. We did not choose them. They are hand- me- downs. And we take them for unchangeable truths. But the nature of beliefs is that they can change.

You’re going to believe in something. That’s the nature of who we are as human beings.

The only question you have to ask yourself is this: “Is this belief working for me?”

Today is the first day of Spring, so why not do a little spring cleaning? Ask yourself:

  • “What beliefs about myself do I need to rip up and throw away?”
  • “What new beliefs about myself do I need to create to get what I want/need?”
  • “What beliefs about life don’t work for me anymore?”
  • “What beliefs can I create that will give me a happier, more fulfilling experience of life?”

If there are blocks holding you back from what you want, they are usually outdated beliefs. If you need help identifying then and letting them go, give me a call. I believe I can help you.

Ted

Belief: The Tie That Binds, The Wings that Soar.

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320px-Jumbo_and_Matthew_Scott

One day a man was strolling through the circus. As he passed by the elephants, he noticed that the only thing that prevented these huge animals   from running away was a small chain attached to a collar around their leg. The chain was tied to a little peg hammered into the ground. The man thought to himself “Surely, that small peg can be easily pulled out by this 10 foot high creature. Is this safe?”

The man approached the elephant trainer and inquired as to the skimpy method used to hold the elephant.

“Yes, it is safe” the trainer replied. “When the elephants are babies, they are tied in the same way except using a metal stake deep in the ground. This is enough to hold the baby elephants. Tempted by the world outside, they try to break free again and again, but the chain pulls them back and inflicts pain on their legs. They learn that any effort to escape is futile, and they soon give up trying altogether.”

The trainer continued “Now, as a big elephant, it remembers the pain it felt as a baby. It remembers that as hard as it tries, it cannot break free and can only go so far as the chain will allow. It has long given up trying to escape, so we need only secure it with a small peg in the ground. It does not matter that this elephant stands 10 feet high, weighs 14,00o pounds, and can easily pull the peg out and trample both of us. The memory of its limitation prevails.”

The man walked away shaking his head. One of the world’s strongest animals, able to uproot trees and destroy villages, held captive by a skinny chain and a small wooden peg.

The parable of this story is obvious. As human beings, we are often no smarter than elephants.

We believe in limitations that keep us prisoners. We hold painful memories that keep us taking risks. Because we have failed once or twice, we have stopped even trying.

You have to cut elephants some slack. As big as they are, their brainpower doesn’t even compare to what we have under our hood. We should know better.

But we often don’t. We treat our self imposed limitations as truth. But they are not truths. They are simply beliefs about what is possible for us. And your beliefs can change. Now. Today.

After ten years in private practice as a hypnotherapist, I’m still amazed by the power of belief and it’s ability to bind us or set us free.

I’ll be examining the power of belief in the next few posts. I’d like to hear about how your beliefs occur to you and how your beliefs have changed if at all. I invite you to step back and see your beliefs as beliefs instead of truth and what impact they have on your life. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Ted

Integrity: The Glue That Holds Your Success Together

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367px-Model_airplanes,_Union_Station_00253u

I built a model airplane when I was a kid. The instructions said to use modeling cement which we didn’t have. I asked my mom if she could buy me some. She said sure, we’ll go tomorrow.

But I was impatient. I couldn’t wait until tomorrow. I wanted to build the plane today. So I got the white Elmer’s Glue, and that’s how I built my plane.

When the glue was clear and dry I picked up the plane by one of the wings and the wing broke off. That really upset me so I glued it back and used scotch tape to hold it. While I was dealing with that, the propeller fell off. Soon, all the parts were coming off because you don’t use white glue to build a model airplane. You use cement.

My plane had no integrity. It had all the parts, except the part that mattered most of all: the right kind of glue to keep it together.

You can have the greatest plan, the most sincere intentions, the most brilliant idea, but if you don’t have the integrity to bring it together and keep it together, it just won’t fly. Or worse, after it gets airborne, it will come crashing to the ground.

Integrity is the ability to be your word.

It is the integration of your words and your actions.  With it, your words can move mountains. Without it, even though your talk is cheap, very few will buy it.

 Can you keep your agreement to be somewhere at an agreed upon time? If you can’t, it sends the message loud and clear: this person can not be counted on to keep his agreements.

Do  you honor your financial agreements by paying your bills on time? If you don’t guess what happens? Your credit score  announces to the world: you can’t count on this person to pay back money that they borrow.

Do you do what you say you are going to do? If you do it once, probably no one will notice. Do it five times, people start to respect you. Do it one hundred times and you become dependable. Do it every single time and guess what happens?

Your word now has power. When you speak, people listen. If you say it’s going to rain, people start buying umbrellas, and if you say it will flood, they start building dams. Need funds? A handshake will get you millions.

Now you show  up in the world as a rock, unshakable in your ability to gather people and resources, to move and inspire people to action. Just say the word and people will fight for you and die for you because they know you make things happen, because every time you said it was gonna happen, it did, sure as the day follows night.

But your ability to have this kind of integrity doesn’t start with showing up on time and paying your bills or keeping promises to people. Nope. Those are just the outward signs.

The power of integrity and the force that it wields starts with keeping your word to yourself. It grows from the integration of your own thoughts, words and deeds. It means you are whole, that all the parts are working together in unison and that your promises to yourself are not scattered to and fro by circumstance, but instead, are constructed to stand solidly in the face of breakdowns, obstacles, and the winds of change. You develop a degree of trust in yourself that knows neither fear nor doubt.

Want to tighten up your integrity? Want to start using a stronger glue?

  • Start waking up at the hour you say you will, everyday except one day. Do it come hell, high water, or late night parties.
  • Start showing up at the agreed upon time.  All the time.
  • Set an easy goal with a deadline. Accomplish it. Set a harder goal. Accomplish it. Set an audacious goal. Accomplish it.
  • Start taking 3 daily actions that you will do every day. EVERY DAY. Regardless of whether you want to or not or whether it’s convenient or not.
  • When you commit,do so with full responsibility of choice that you will show up. If you can’t, don’t.

It takes practice. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. You do what you say you are going to do.  Your speech and actions cemented together and taking wing on the power of your word: that’s integrity.

Ted

For a podcast of this blog, go to the Ted in Your Head podcast, Episode 27.

Self Hypnosis as a Tool for Change

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Self hypnosis

Why do most New Years resolutions fail? Why is it so difficult to change habits?

You hear about it all the time: people win big in the lottery, millions of dollars. Five years later they are broke.

Perhaps you’ve experienced this: you lose a bunch of weight just to gain it all back plus a few pounds.

Or you’ve quit smoking, just to start again when, after a few drinks, someone offers you a smoke.

Or you make a New Years resolution to start exercising, so you join a gym, go 3 times and then never again.

The problem is that sometimes it takes more than willpower, determination and resolutions to change.

Sometimes you need to re-program your subconscious mind.

Because if your subconscious mind (88% of your mind) is more comfortable with poverty, being fat, being a smoker, and being a couch potato, then it will sabotage the best efforts of your conscious mind (12%) to change. And your subconscious mind will win. Almost always.

So how does one go about re-programming one’s subconscious mind?

Self hypnosis is one of the most powerful ways to do this.

Self hypnosis has been used by celebrities, athletes, performers, business people, salespeople, and entrepreneurs.

From Einstein and Thomas Edison to Aston Kutcher, Matt Damon and the Chicago White Sox, self hypnosis has been an essential component of success.

Start the New Year with a Success Mindset. Learn to use Self Hypnosis!

You can learn self hypnosis by taking my Self Hypnosis for Success Class at Pasadena City College on three Saturdays: January 18th, 25th and February 1st. Click here to register!

The power of self hypnosis can be used to:

  • Have the correct mindset and attitude for success in business and personal life.
  • Get rid of procrastination that keeps you stuck and in a rut.
  • Feel less self-conscious and more relaxed and confident in social and professional situations.
  • Increase sales through higher confidence and less call resistance.
  • Get relief from anxiety and fear, and negative thinking.

Click to register and get your subconscious mind to work for you!

In Self Hypnosis for Success, you will learn:

  • How to put yourself into hypnosis.
  • How to use the power of  suggestion to re-program your subconscious mind.
  • How to put it all together to create a mind conditioned for success in just a few minutes a day.

You’ll receive my Guide to Self Hypnosis and my Self Hypnosis Conditioning CD, which also includes my studio produced “Peaceful Place” relaxation track as an added bonus. In addition, you’ll get handouts at each class containing the material presented. The class is being held at Pasadena City College on January 18, 25th and February 1st from 9 to 10:30 am.

Click here to register and learn to take control of your mind using self hypnosis!

Hope to see you there!

Ted

 

Sometimes You Just Need to Let Go

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Me Risking Life and Limb in Tucson AZ in 1984

Me Risking Life and Limb in Tucson AZ in 1984

During my  “cowboy” phase, while living in Arizona, I decided to try my hand at rodeo. I made up my mind to do bareback bronc riding.

This is where a rider gets on a horse (or bronc) whose only desire is to buck the bronc rider off.

With only one hand, the rider hangs on to a “rigging”, which is a handle, like on a suitcase, attached to a leather strap strapped around the horse.  To hang on, the rider wears a glove  that fits tightly into the rigging handle, secured with resin (sticky) powder. The goal is to stay on for eight seconds.

I practiced for a while on a wooden sawhorse with a rigging attached and two buddies at either end bouncing it up and down. Thinking I was ready, I went to the practice arena one night and paid ten bucks for my chance to ride a wild bronc.

My legs felt like jelly as I lowered myself onto the horse in the chute. I  jammed  my gloved hand into the rigging. Out in the arena, the pick- up man waited on his horse. The pick-up man’s job is to rescue the rider from the bronc after his eight seconds.

I nodded my head to signal that I was ready. The chute opened.  Eleven hundred pounds of horse rocketed into the arena with 130 lbs of  me  attached to it.

About 3 seconds too late, I realized that I had no business being on that horse. I was getting tossed like a rag doll in a clothes dryer.

The pick up man, seeing that I was a lost cause,  rode up next to us on the right. I started to climb onto his horse. I got half way there with one leg on when he yelled “Take your hand out of the rigging!”

In all the excitement, I had forgotten to take my left hand out of the handle of the rigging. My hand was stuck tight with resin, on the other horse, all nice and cozy, the way it was supposed to be.  Except now, it wasn’t supposed to be.

All I could do was climb back onto the bronc. After a few more bone-rattling bucks, I got my hand free and he gleefully sent me flying.

After I got all the dirt out of my mouth, and with some sense pounded into me, I decided to do horses a favor and end my rodeo career.

Sometimes you just need to let go. 

The past year is just about gone. Soon a new year will come. Things come and things go. That’s life, isn’t it?

But sometimes, caught up in the excitement (or routine) of life,  we forget that we are still holding on when we should have let go a long time ago. We can end up being dragged along by our involvement, shaken to and fro by our choices, or being owned by our physical and psychological “stuff.”

As hard as it might be, there are times when the best thing to do is let go and get off.  This is how you make yourself available for a new ride. This is how you allow new, (maybe better) stuff to come in.

Are you aware of something that needs to be released from your life, now?

  • Material things you don’t use or need
  • A job
  • A relationship
  • A desire  (like trying to ride horses that don’t want to be ridden)
  • Guilt or regret
  • A tradition
  • A belief
  • A habit

At this time of the year, trees shed their leaves as Nature prepares to create anew. Why can’t you?

Ted

To listen to a podcast of this blog, go to www.tedmoreno.com/ted-in-your-head episode 39

Persistence, Faith and the Chinese Bamboo Tree

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Persistence

Here is a parable of  persistence and faith: the story of the Chinese Bamboo tree.

This tree is like all trees in that it requires watering and feeding to make it grow.

What is unique about the Chinese Bamboo is that for the first year after the seed is planted, there in no apparent growth. In spite of all the watering and care, it seems as if nothing is happening.

After two years, there is is still not a shoot or a sprout.

After the third year of watering and feeding the tree, there still will be nothing to reward you for your efforts.

Even after the fourth year, after all those hours of care and attention,  still there would be nothing to show for your time and trouble.

However, in the fifth year, something will happen. Not only will the tree sprout, poking its head out of the ground, but in one growing season, the Chinese Bamboo tree can grow up to 80 feet!

You might ask: “Did it take four years to grow or one season?” The answer is obvious. Four years.

What was unapparent and invisible to you, was that the tree was developing a strong and deep root system, a foundation that would enable it to support 80 feet of upward growth.

Persistence, Taking Action and Having Faith

Sometimes it seems as if all our work is for naught. It’s easy to get discouraged if we don’t see results right away.

But even though we don’t see results doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. We must continue to have persistence, take action, and have faith in our dreams.

Through thick and thin. Through good times and bad. Through ridicule and praise. Through feast and famine.

Taking action might mean starting over. Changing or tweaking your plan. It might mean regrouping after a breakdown where you are on the floor crying bitterly in frustration. It’s during these times that your foundation is being built, if you persist. Every challenging experience you overcome gives you what it takes to reach a greater height.

Persistence and faith combined with intention and action communicates our desire to the universe in the only language it understands.

Continue to nurture your dream. Cultivate it every day. Feed it with affirmations and  inspirational material that you  listen to or read.  Find supportive people (such as yours truly) that will give you motivation and encouragement when you are discouraged.

Trust that you are affecting the universe in ways that you cannot know from your limited perspective. Have faith that there are unseen forces at work even when it seems nothing is happening. Continue to build your foundation and your persistence will be rewarded.

You cannot know the future or when the universe will reward your efforts.  Trust that it conspires in your favor.

Ted