It Works....it actually works

The Famous Little Red Book That Makes Your Dreams Come True!

While on my recent trip to Florida, I flipped through the Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine called Spirit. There was a story ("Luck and Desire") about a young man who had a devastating accident, but was making progress towards recovery against many odds. This is a fairly typical premise.

Yet....this story hooked me.  What captured me was his life before the accident. As a child, he had not been particularly athletic. His mother had a secret to share with him - a 20-page booklet called It Works! which was given to her by her father. That booklet contained the method and the system for developing goals and achieving them.

It's a short booklet. On Amazon, it's only $3, for heaven's sake. How could that booklet contain information about how to get anything you desire? And it's so old...it's got some quaint dated language in it.

The young man in the article, Rob, applied the principles to his pursuit of baseball. And you know what? as he grew up, he became better at it. Then he became good at it. Then he was looking at athletic scholarships to college. He had seen the process work in his life, and in the lives of his mother and grandfather.

Then, the accident happened and his life took a different direction. He had to redesign his goals, but again using the same method and techniques, he made (and is still making) remarkable progress towards recovery.

It Works in My Life

So what have I got to lose? I thought I'd give it a try. I found a notebook and began wrote down what I want. I wrote down everything I could think of. I didn't restrict it to any particular type of goal.  I've followed the plan as faithfully as faithfully as I am able.

Anything happening?

Remarkably, yes it is. One goal is basically accomplished. I have had remarkable and unexpected steps towards achieving two other goals. How did that happen?

Yeah, it could be random, but for me, there's enough evidence that the method is doing exactly what the book says it will do. It seems unlikely, but I am cautiously optimistic.

Nothing New Under the Sun

The Luck and Desire article discussed the psychology of goal setting, and how it's possible to get it all wrong. It also talks about other manifestations of the same idea. In the early 00's a book called The Secret was wildly popular. Same thing.

In the late 90s, a book that took off in Christian communities was The Prayer of Jabez. Same idea. I bet this concept comes around every generation or so.

The skeptics can deny and protest all they want. And honestly, I'm still somewhat of a skeptic. But for now I'm keeping at it.

The only thing you do in return is spread the word. Here is one small effort to spread the word and pay it forward.

BTW, It Works! is also available for Kindle. Only $2.40. What's holding you back??

Some days...

Some days you just want to find a sunny spot and take a nap.

The irony of judging other people

Within a few days of my previous post, I received bad news in my family. My sister in law (wife of my husband's brother) has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

There's not much to say about that - it is terrible, it is undeserved, she is relatively young (early 50s), she has lived cleanly. Supposedly, it was "caught early" so treatment is hopeful. However, pancreatic cancer is a lousy one to have because it does not have good treatment success no matter what you do. Consider Randy Pausch and Steve Jobs.

What remains that we can do? Well, pray, of course.

What did I just whine about? Sharing personal tragedies with a group to pray about.

I am a horrible person. God reminds me of that from time to time (I'm still forgiven, but that's another issue.) Nevertheless, I shall pray and I will share it with the group. I have not yet, though, since we don't know much at this point. Just a diagnosis.

Prayers in a group

I don't understand. In choir we close the rehearsal with sharing of concerns and joys, then we pray briefly. We don't pray on each concern explicitly.

I don't like the sharing of joys and concerns. The joys are few in number - maybe 1 happy thing for every 8 tragedies. Mostly we hear of dreadful things - "my mother in law is sick," "someone I work with was in a car accident," "my neighbor's father had a stroke," etc. It is so sad and it makes me depressed.

I am a horrible person. I am supposed to overflow with compassion for these beloved children of God, but I do not feel it. I am supposed to feel closer to these people, and maybe even admire them for uplifting their friends and family in prayer.  Instead it makes me depressed.

It seems like there are a few people who always have someone to talk about. Sometimes the connection is tenuous at best - "the friend of a son of someone I work with had something terrible happen to them, I'm not really sure of the details" - how can such a thing move you so much that you need all of us to pray for it?  My gut tells me that for some of these people it's a chance to display their sensitivity and compassion, and thus earn the admiration of others.

I don't know what to suggest. The practice itself not really a bad thing. I just find these things much more private and intimate.

Blessed Saturday

Nothing like a Saturday when you really need one. It's sunny, I could sleep in, and I have something fun to do today.

Today I will go work on Quilts of Valor with a friend and a group from my quilt guild. I help out once in a while - it's not my signature project personally, but it's a good charity, and it's such fun to sew with friends.

It's sunny here in the midwest, not terribly cold, and I got to sleep in. These are the small things that bring joy.

The memory is going

I spent about an hour on Saturday writing a long post recounting a story from my life. Then I had a sudden feeling of deja vu... aw, crud. I posted that story already! It was about the January Apartment Fire back in 1989.

The frightening thing was how similarly worded the story was - the version I'd written three years ago and Saturday's.  I have become an old lady who repeats herself.

Heh, at least I can check if I've repeated myself!

Blogher

I've recently spent some time on Blogher reading and learning how to become a better blogger. So far I have not found much advice beyond what I already know - use proper grammar, spell correctly, proofread, and vary your sentence structure.

There are a lot of helpful tutorials on photography. I have a lot to learn about taking photos for online.  Blogs with pictures are just more interesting.

I'm also hoping to improve my readership and step up the design, particularly on my rikrax blog.

This blog is still rather private, to me. At times, I have posted blunt, honest, and strong opinions and feelings. I'm not really ashamed or embarrassed, but it isn't something I would like to have a wide readership for. Yes, I know exactly what I'm doing when I post to the Internet. As it says in my blog subtitle, this is my public journal. It's an exercise for me in mental fitness.

Hello 2012

Almost all of my favorite bloggers have started their posts this year with one titled "Hello 2012."  OK, so here's mine.

What will 2012 entail?

Things are changing this year personally for me. I do not expect my job to change much, but I think I must define a new paradigm for how I live. The kin keeper (Mom) is gone. I do not think any of my other family will reach out to me very much, therefore if I want to center my life on my family, I must become the kin keeper. I do not want to become the kin keeper, therefore, I must begin to define my life outside of my family of origin. I still would love to be in contact with family and I probably will be in contact on some level. SImply put, my life will not be about family.

This is non-traditional. The most popular model in America is the family-centered paradigm, in all its stress filled glory. For many people it works out well. For many others, it is hurtful and harmful. For me, I think it could be fine, but I don't think it will deliver fulfillment I am looking for. I will end up frustrated and feeling unappreciated.

I'm not sure what this means when I try to operationalize a non-traditional life. Travel over the holidays? Work over the holidays? Develop and nurture a network of friends that serve as family over the holidays? Who will I call to catch up with?  The fact is, I need a tribe, but my tribe does not need to be a clan.

So, I must get started.