Gifts that are freely given - not always opened

This is a journal entry that I wanted to post here, because I thought it most appropriate that two days after I wrote this, I'm fighting voices, which are telling me not to unwrap presents...

Jan 23, 2005
This morning, right before I woke up with the alarm for a Monday morning mastermind meeting, I was having a dream.

In my dream, my alarm went off. So I shut off the alarm, got up, and went into the office, which is across the hall from my bedroom (which was pretty accurate in my dream). As I walked into the office, I noticed that there were presents all around me. It was so amazing!

There were presents of of all shapes and sizes, most of them being in gift bags of all colors and sizes. I realized that my office was larger (than it actually is), and the entire room was actually filled with presents.

As I turned to go back into the bedroom to tell Carrie, I realized that there were presents all around me. Everywhere I looked, there were presents.

One of them was from "Gordy and girls," which would be my uncle Gordy and his daughters, (my cousins,) Jennifer and Megan (Megan unexpectedly passed on a few years ago at age 23).
At that point in the dream, I realized that each of these presents was an unopened present, that had been given to me in the past.

The amount of presents there was absolutely staggering - so many presents in fact, that I thought it could take an entire lifetime to open them.

And that was one of the points of the dream. It took my entire lifetime to leave these presents sitting there, and I wanted to open all of them in one shot, but I couldn't. It would take time to open them, and the reason that I wanted them all right then was that I was just coming to them at one particular moment in time. All of the presents were and are mine, but I must take the time and make an effort to open them.

As I went to unwrap the present from Gordy and girls, which was wrapped in gold (if the present was wrapped in gold, imagine what was inside!), the sound of my alarm became the crinkling of the wrapping paper being unwrapped, and I awoke.

The dream has left me with these questions today. (Maybe they will help you too):

• How many presents are given to us in our lives, that we leave, sitting, completely unwrapped, because we're too nervous to ask, too afraid to take the first step, or simply because we lack the faith in ourselves?
• How can I make sure to receive all the blessings I'm given by opening the presents that come my way?
• How can I remove my mental limitations so that I will realize how many gifts are already in my life?
• How can I open myself to receiving all of the gifts that are given to me?
• How can I come to the understanding that I don't have to open them all at one time, but rather every time a gift comes into my life, to recognize it and go to the work of opening it?

Featured on Joel Comm's Call!

Well, I wasn't exactly "Featured", but I was a speaker on a call with over 500 people. That's pretty cool! It's about 40 minutes into the call... so you'll have to hit the fast forward button if you're interested in hearing just me.

But the rest of the call is great as well, and I definitely encourage you, if you are in any way interested, to check out Joel's work! It has made a big difference for me!
http://www.theadsensecode.com/replay.html

If you're interested in learning more about Joel Comm and how The Adsense Code can help you, click here.

Clips Archive.com - Your Top Video Resource (600 Videos +)

Clips Archive.com - Meteor Crash Video...

I find it hard to believe, but cool if it's real. Check it out and see what you think.

Amazinng Google Earth Photos

It's amazing what you can see with Google Earth.

(Warning... HUGE TIME KILLER!)

Presents, and gifts, as a dream

This morning, right before I woke up with the alarm for a Monday morning mastermind meeting, I was having a dream.

In my dream, my alarm went off. So I shut off the alarm, got up, and went into the office, which is across the hall from my bedroom (which was pretty accurate in my dream). As I walked into the office, I noticed that there were presents all around me. It was so amazing!

There were presents of of all shapes and sizes, most of them being in gift bags of all colors and sizes. I realized that my office was larger (than it actually is), and the entire room was actually filled with presents.

As I turned to go back into the bedroom to tell Carrie, I realized that there were presents all around me. Everywhere I looked, there were presents.

One of them was from "Gordy and girls," which would be my uncle Gordy and his daughters, (my cousins,) Jennifer and Megan (Megan unexpectedly passed on a few years ago at age 23).

At that point in the dream, I realized that each of these presents was an unopened present, that had been given to me in the past.

The amount of presents there was absolutely staggering - so many presents in fact, that I thought it could take an entire lifetime to open them.

And that was one of the points of the dream. It took my entire lifetime to leave these presents sitting there, and I wanted to open all of them in one shot, but I couldn't. It would take time to open them, and the reason that I wanted them all, right then, was that I was just coming to them at one particular moment in time. All of the presents were (and are) mine, but I must take the time to open them.

As I went to unwrap the present from Gordy and girls, which was wrapped in gold (if the present was wrapped in gold, imagine what was inside!), the sound of my alarm became the crinkling of the wrapping paper being unwrapped, and I awoke.

The dream has left me with these questions today. (Maybe they will help you too):

• How many presents are given to us in our lives, that we leave, sitting, completely unwrapped, because we're too nervous to ask, too afraid to take the first step, or simply because we lack the faith in ourselves?
• How can I make sure to receive all the blessings I'm given by opening the presents that come my way?
• How can I remove my mental limitations so that I will realize how many gifts are already in my life?
• How can I open myself to receiving all of the gifts that are given to me? How can I come to the understanding that I don't have to open them all at one time, but rather every time a gift comes into my life, to recognize it and go to the work of opening it?

Mind boggling

Talk about pushing the human body to its limits... this is amazing.

I have no idea what the end of the video is about, but the rest of this is amazing!

http://www.worksafevideos.com/movies/russian_acrobatics.php

Talking ahout Women - Politically Correct

So this doesn't exactly fall under the strive4impact philosophy, but I do think that the whole "Politically correct" movement is pretty ridiculous. That having been said, I think these little quips are rather amusing!

http://www.strive4impact.com/talk-about-women-be-politically-correct.html

Once in a lifetime - busting the myth

I'm not an Eminem fan. In fact, I really don't have any opinion on Eminem, because I have never met him. But, he has a song that I have heard frequently... and I like the song, but I got to thinking about the lyrics, and I don't think I agree with the message at all.

It goes like this: "You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you better never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime."

And Eminem is, of course, not the only one promoting this kind of a philosophy. Our entire American society is based around the idea that you have to pay attention, because you may miss the opportunity of a lifetime.

So guess what happens? Most of us MISS the *deal of a lifetime*. But do you know what? We miss the deal of a life time at least once every week.

We miss it, because we're 'out there' looking, being afraid that we may miss it. And then, someone sufficiently markets a concept, product, business, topic, or themself to us, and we convince ourselves that it's the one opportunity.

Guess what? 95% of the time, it doesn't work.

And 20 years later, we find ourselves talking about the real estate we didn't buy, the trip we didn't take, the relationship we didn't have...

Some people succeed, and others fail, right? Wrong. All people fail. Some just fail forward, and they do it more frequently than others. Most of the world thinks failure means going backwards. Successful people realize failure means forward progress, if you take the meaning out from the failure.

And do you know why?
Life is a fail-your-way-to-the-top game. You do NOT only get one shot. You get one shot every minute of every day. And if you miss that shot, which you will, you will get another shot. It may not be exactly the same shot, but it will be there if you want to take it.

Oh, and by the way, you are probably going to fail along the way. And you may blow it. The difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is that the successful, when they 'fail', get right back up, and keep doing whatever it is that they want to do. Their "SECRET" is that they keep failing, until they have success. And because of this, some people seem to succeed, no matter what they do.

It's just that they're willing to fail more and fall harder than anyone else.

Eminem's song advises you to lose yourself. The song advises you that you will only get one shot.

My advice?

DON'T LOSE yourself in the music. Instead, FIND yourself in the music, and do it every minute of every day.