Be A Master of Something (Lessons from the Dog Whisperer)

Yesterday I watched a highly entertaining television program called The Dog Whisperer. The star of the show is Cesar Millan, a man who has extraordinary mastery in rehabilitating behaviorally-challenged canines.

Cesar Millan Had A Goal to Be World's Greatest Dog Trainer
Cesar’s life goal was to be the world’s greatest dog trainer, and what is so evident is that Cesar just loves dogs. He just loves what he is doing. And it is a pleasure to watch him do what he does so well.

Try to Do Something You Love
Now, this makes me think we should all try to be doing something we love. When we do something we love, time stands still and we become very focused and very energized. And this is when we can really become good at something, become a master of something.

If It Can't Be Your Job, Do Something You Love as A Hobby
If we can’t find that exact job that allows us to work at something we love, then we should take up a hobby or avocation that is something we love. In fact, many times a hobby can actually turn into a successful business or career.

Pour A Lot of Energy into One Thing
For me, being the best at one thing is a little challenging because I have so many interests and have had so many different facets of my career. But after seeing The Dog Whisperer, I think there is something to be said for narrowing one’s focus and pouring a lot of energy into one area.

My Focus to Learn How to Use the Internet
Actually, one area where I have poured a lot of my energy is learning how to use the Internet. Way back in the early days of the Internet (1995), I started building commercial web sites and doing online marketing. Since that time, I have probably logged well over 200,000 hours online and have read hundreds of books about all aspects of working with the Internet. I have led workshops, given speeches and consulted with numerous individuals, businesses and organizations to help them best use the Internet.

My Desire to Use the Internet
When I started using the Internet, I wasn’t really thinking about trying to gain mastery with it. I just know that I loved it and had a strong desire to get better and better at using it as a powerful tool and to help others to do the same.

Master Something and People Will Notice
To become really, really good at something, you will need to invest a great deal of energy. That energy creates a strong forcefield that radiates out to others, to the community and to the world. This is a powerful force and you can use this energy to attract like energy. This is the principal of the Law of Attraction.

Master of the Internet
Recently I had an experience that helped me to clarify a goal for my life. A book was published titled "Online Marketing Heroes: Interviews with 25 Successful Online Marketing Gurus." I was featured in this book and the book's recognition for my work made me realize that although I had not started out with a conscious goal of becoming a master of the Internet, my passion and love for the Internet had led me down a road of mastery.

Doing What You Love or What Interests You Can Lead to Mastery
What are your interests? What are your passions? You might have to try several things before you discover this, however, when you really connect with something you love, try to make time in your life to do that thing.

Become A Master
Mother Teresa said it is not what we do, but the love we put into something we do, that really counts. Find something you love, do it and become a master.

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Read Joan Holman Interview in "Online Marketing Heroes"

The book "Online Marketing Heroes" is available for purchase at Amazon.com

Read more at www.onlinemarketingheroes.com

The Dog Whisperer is on the National Geographic Channel

What Life Wants of You

Last night I viewed the final live web broadcast of Oprah Winfrey's 10 week class featuring author and spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle and his book A New Earth.

Since March, I have joined millions of other people in the participation of Oprah's groundbreaking series of webcasts of A New Earth.

WHAT DOES LIFE WANT OF ME?

One of the most important points I have gotten from Eckhart Tolle's teachings is about getting in touch with what life wants of you.

When Oprah asked Tolle where his inspiration came from to write the book The Power of Now (which she said is one of the most important books of our time), he said it came from the space of stillness within, where there is no mental noise and where all creative endeavors are born.

Tolle stated: "Out of that stillness, when the time is right, sometimes an impulse comes, a feeling that something wants to be born into this world. Rather than me wanting to write a book, there is a book that wants to be written."

Tolle said the book "was inspired, but not channeled." Every day he set aside time for writing the book, however, on some days the flow was not as strong.

The lesson for all of us is we must ask life what purpose it has for us. And to find that purpose, we need to go beyond the superficial level of our human ego and human mind and act from deeper impulses that come from our higher mind, our higher self.

When we invite stillness in our life, when we find a space of stillness within, spirit flows through us more freely. However, stillness does not happen until the mind becomes still.

One of the most important keys to the true fulfillment of our destiny is learning how to create not from the human ego, but from the higher self, from a place of Creative Intelligence, Infinite Intelligence, the Source, the Creator, or God, or whatever we may name it.

On my personal life journey, I have found that an understanding of my higher purpose has not come from a one-time revelatory experience.

Instead, trying to fulfill my life purpose has involved an ongoing process of daily creating a place of stillness and inner peace as the foundation for all my decisions and actions.

The more I can live my life from a place of stillness and inner peace, the more my life can contribute to the greater good of humanity. And I believe that a contribution to the greater good is the highest and best purpose for my life.

Intellectually, I cannot figure out how to best contribute to the greater good, but I believe my higher self knows exactly what I can do to fulfill this purpose for my life.

My goal is to try to elevate my consciousness to that level where it connects to my higher self, and the study and practice of the teachings found in the Eckhart Tolle books have been very helpful for working on that goal.

I commend Oprah and the corporate sponsors of the classes who have made these webcasts free to millions of people in the world.

You can watch or listen to webcasts of the entire 10 week New Earth online series at Oprah.com.

A New Year's Resolution: Do Not Drift with The Tide

Half the wrecks that strew life's ocean
If some star had been their guide;
Might have long been riding safely,
But they drifted with the tide.

Robert Whitaker

For the year 2008, find some “star” to be your guide. That star should be a strong purpose or focus for the year which will produce specific, measurable results.

To come up with the purpose or focus for the year, you should first seek to raise your consciousness to the level where it can connect to Spirit, or Infinite Intelligence, or God, or whatever you may call it.

The level of consciousness that corresponds to the Supreme Creative Power is where you can be inspired with the highest and best vision for your life.

Connecting to this Supreme Creative Power involves a stilling of the mind, a calming of the emotions, and a quiet listening to the inner voice. Some people access this state through meditation, others through talking a walk or a run, others through spending time in nature. The key is to enter a relaxed state, which is essential for the creative process to take place. Personally, I do this with long, hot baths that help me completely unwind and de-stress.

Close your eyes and visualize yourself reviewing your life at the end of 2008 and feeling gratitude and joy that you achieved your aims for the year. The more clearly you can see and feel this vision, the more power it will have to change your life.

You should write down the results you desire in 2008 as specific statements and review them at least once every day, since this will keep your mind focused on what you want.

Some examples:

In 2008, I enjoy love and harmony with my family and friends.

In 2008, I attract many helpful people whose wise counsel and assistance help me increase my income (by...................percent). Here you can put in the percentage increase you desire. Pick a number that you believe is possible since "true belief will induce relaxation, lower tenseness and anxiety, and allow the creative process to take place."

Recommended Reading for 2008

The Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne Dyer
Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz
The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill
The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles

A Minnesota Extreme Home Makeover & Community Spirit

Just recently, I personally witnessed an amazing and wonderful life-changing experience for a very deserving family here in our Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota community. (Minneapolis-St. Paul is also known as the Twin Cities to those of you reading this blog outside the United States)

The family had been recently devastated with tragedy involving the murder of a family member.

Husband and wife Erik and Vicki Swenson are both schoolteachers, Vicki’s sister was murdered last year by an ex-boyfriend. Erick and Vicki took in the four children of Vicki’s sister even though they already had three children of their own and are expecting a fourth child soon. The sister's childrens' father had also died - in an automobile accident - and so the children were left parentless.

The Swenson’s home became a tight squeeze for this now very large family, and students at Hopkins High School, where the Swensons teach, decided to make a video and nominate the Swensons for an “Extreme Home Makeover.”

On August 21, 2007, the Swensons, who reside in Minnetonka, Minnesota, (a suburb of the Twin Cities), got a surprise when Ty Pennington pulled up in the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition bus in front of their home and told them they had been selected for this makeover. In fact, it was going to be the biggest home makeover in the history of the television series, which has been on the air since 2003.

The popular ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition television program, viewed by millions of people, has left a legacy of greatly improved and even entirely new homes for U.S. families who have experienced hardship.

One of the most wonderful things about the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition program is that the local communities become very involved with the process. Countless volunteers as well as donations of materials and goods make these home makeovers truly remarkable and infused with community cooperation and community spirit.

I had no idea a huge, million dollar home could be built almost overnight.

But I saw it happen with my own eyes.

The bus pulled up on a Tuesday. The Swenson family was shipped off to Disney World for a week and then the work began.

The house was torn down by Thursday. A new foundation was then laid and by Saturday, when I visited the site, the house was pretty much up. There were 200 contractors and subcontractors working on the house. There were large trucks and trailers everywhere. Small crowds of people cheered the workers on.

This monumental effort was quite a site to behold.

Two days later, on Monday, the furniture was being moved into the house and I realized I had witnessed the complete building of a beautiful 5,600 square foot house in 99 hours. That is a little over four days.

I saw the house at several stages during the building process. The weather was beautiful and cooperated with the effort. There was so much joy and such high energy and I feel like this home has anchored a special energy of community spirit here in the Twin Cities.

COMMUNITY SPIRIT
Obviously, Erik and Vicki Swenson love children. They choose to be teachers and parents. They generously opened their home and hearts to children in their extended family.

As a former psychotherapist, I was trained in the school of psychology developed by Dr. Alfred Adler. He viewed human beings as being confronted with life tasks that involve communal life. He said that psychologically healthy people have "Gemeinschaftsgefuhl". This is a German word that means "community feeling".

Erik and Vicki Swenson demonstrated community feeling by taking in four orphaned children.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul volunteers and donors demonstrated community feeling by helping to make this amazing home makeover.

You can view the new house and its makeover on November 25 on ABC television.

Extreme Home Makeover Links

Sorrow to Joy in the Extreme

TJB Homes Photos of Makeover

The Swenson-Lee Family

TJB Homes Gives Extreme Makeover

from Wikipedia: "gemeinschaftsgefuhl" -- a profound sense of caring for others and a desire to improve the world

GEMEINSCHAFTSGEFUHL - GESUNDHEIT!

from www.candleinthedark.com/adler.html

Adler had found his empirical and clearly definable solution in gemeinschaftsgefuhl - people drove towards healthy social interaction. He defined gemeinschaftsgefuhl in german alone - so English translations are difficult. However, we can recognize this concept as:

a profound caring about others
a positive feeling towards others
the desire to improve the world
healthy social interaction

Adler was optimistic, and felt everyone was born with this drive. (See Fromm) But, unlike Rousseau and Fromm, Adler felt that each of us had to work hard to foster it.

Spiritual Renewal & Healing through "Quiet Time"

My personal path in life has involved extensive education in the fields of psychology and healing. A gift given to me by one of my teachers is the practice of what he calls Quiet Time. That teacher is Herwig Schoen and he is the originator of a new healing modality he calls "Reconnective Therapy". (www.reconnectivetherapy.com) All of Herwig's classes are started with Quiet Time during which we stop all activity to sit and be with "what is".

During this Quiet Time, I have a heightened awareness of my racing thoughts as well as external sounds and then I come to a point where I become keenly aware of my own breathing and I feel a conscious presence beyond my thoughts. I rise above my thoughts and connect with my consciousness that observes these thoughts.

Sometimes it is almost impossible to stop my thoughts and be still, but even observing that I am not my thoughts, but something greater than my thoughts, is progress towards reconnection with my higher self. After all, who is observing the racing of the thoughts? It is something more than those thoughts.

Eckhart Tolle (www.eckharttolle.com), author of the best-selling book The Power of Now, talks about how beneath the surface everything is connected with everything else and also with the Source of all life. When we become quiet and stop all the noise, we have the opportunity to connect to God or the Source or whatever someone chooses to call the great Intelligence that lies beyond our limited human minds.

The greatest gift of Quiet Time is the experiencing of the higher self. Eckhart Tolle's book A New Heaven and A New Earth: Awaken to Your Life's Purpose refers to heaven not as a location but as the inner realm of consciousness. He states: "A 'new heaven' is the emergence of a transformed state of human consciousness, and 'a new earth' is its reflection in the physical realm."

Your voice in your head is not who you are. If you take just five minutes a day with Quiet Time, you will start to observe this truth. Transcendence of thought through Quiet Time can be a powerful tool for you to make your individual contribution to the spiritual evolution of mankind, which is the foundation of creating a happier and more harmonious civilization.

Stephen Covey in his popular book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says that renewing your spiritual dimension is what provides leadership to your life. That spiritual dimension "draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you and tie you to the timeless truths of all humanity." For some, being in Nature can be the key to renewal. "When you're able to leave the noise and the discord of the city and give yourself up to the harmony and rhythm of nature, you come back renewed.....until gradually the noise and the discord from outside start to invade that sense of inner peace."

Do yourself, and the planet, a favor, and start to practice Quiet Time.

and......interestingly enough, I spoke to a travel agent today on the phone and her actual name was "Heaven." And, honestly, working with her was a "heavenly" experience.

Joybubbles, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak & "Phone Phreaks"

For several years I have been a marketing and public relations consultant to massage pioneer Sister Rosalind Gefre and her Sister Rosalind Schools and Clinics of Massage (www.sisterrosalind.org), with locations throughout Minnesota and North Dakota. Now 77 years old, Sister Rosalind has been featured on radio, television and in print publications throughtout the world, including Time Magazine.

As part of her "massage ministry", Sister Rosalind has held a number of public prayer meetings dedicated to healing. One of the frequent attendees at these meetings was an interesting fellow I met and spent time with named Joybubbles. Born blind with a genius IQ, Joybubbles shared his life story with us at the first prayer meeting he attended, a poignant story of being sexually abused as a child by one of his teachers, who was a nun, and then years later legally changing his name from Joe Engressia to Joybubbles to put his past behind him. He said: "I went to court and rendered the name I was abused under null and void forever," he said. "I never have to say it again."

Joybubbles was an ordained minister of his own Church of Early Childhood but he was most famous for his history as a phone phreak. Phone phreaks were the 70's version of today's computer hackers. With his perfect pitch, Joybubbles accidentally discovered he could make free phone calls by whistling tones and then became a key character in the phone phreak subculture, which included Apple computer co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In fact, in the book iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It, Steve Wozniak gave credit to Joybubbles as being an early inspiration.

Joybubbles was a very special person. He lived by himself in an apartment in Minneapolis and traveled throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul area using a special service for people with disabilities or health conditions called Metro Mobility. He was upbeat, positive, enthusiastic and very knowledgable about many subjects. He was willing to share of himself and give to others. He was, in fact, a real "joy bubble" and demonstrated how someone with such a disability as being blind, could live a full and rich life. At the same time, I witnessed the tremendous damage that had been done to him by the betrayal of a religious authority figure through sexual abuse. During my former career as a psychotherapist, I counseled many victims of child sexual abuse and saw how it is a real soul killer. Even with a lot of therapy, these individuals usually struggle their whole lives with the consequences.

I will not forget Joybubbles.

He died at the age of 58 in Minneapolis on August 8, 2007.

Articles about Joybubbles:
Joybubbles and Mr. Rogers
He Had An Ear for It
Joybubbles, Phone Hacker Extraordinaire
A Conversation with Joybubbles
Hear about Joybubbles on National Public Radio "All Things Considered"
Joybubbles, Peter Pan of Phone Hackers, Dies (New York Times)

Listen to Stories by Joybubbles:
Archive of Stories and Stuff, a weekly story-by-phone line from one of the most famous phone phreaks of all time.


JOYBUBBLES QUOTE
Joybubbles collected tapes of every “Mr. Rogers” episode. When asked why Mr. Rogers mattered, he said: “When you’re playing and you’re just you, powerful things happen.”

from JOYBUBBLES Article in Pioneer Press

"Hi, this is Joybubbles."

5/15/2001: "Friday, May 25th, is my birthday. What a wonderful day to be 5: the fifth month, and the five-times-five day. And I want to shamelessly tell you my birthday wishes. Maybe then they might come true:

"I wish everybody that has been hurt and abused by enemies of childhood when they were little would come to know, now and always: It's not your fault. You did the best you could at the time, with who you were. Maybe now you think of things you could have done, or ought to have done - but remember: You weren't then who you are now, and the wisdom you have now, you didn't have then. You did the best you could, at the time, with who you were. And if you would've known better, you would've done better. It's not something wrong with you; it's something wrong with the people who did that to you. Remember: It's not your fault.

"My second wish is: I wish everybody would take a little time, even if it's only once a month, to get out of the rat race into the sandbox and play like a child. Because, like Mister Rogers said: 'Sometimes I'm a child, still - and sometimes, not so still.'

"My third wish: I wish my friend Adele Lorraine would get well. She suffered a massive stroke - but the way I remember her is: so bubbly and lively and wonderful and full of laughs and hugs. She played at the Minnesota Orchestra and went to schools to help kids learn about loving music. The thing I remember most is: During the time when I was just obsessed by oboes ... I even just loved to say the word 'oboe' ... she picked me up and took me to Orchestra Hall, and a lady came in and played an oboe from the lowest to the highest, so I could hear it really good, and then took one apart and showed me the insides, and how to make reeds, and we talked and laughed and spent half a day just with oboes. Then Adele Lorraine took me out, and we got this great big pickle for me to eat on while we were waiting for your butter-pecan ice cream, and we laughed and hugged. And she let me play some pan pipes. And we went out and tried Greek food. And she was just so full of life and shared her fullness with others. I'll always remember her. May she be well.

"At 5:55 in the morning on my birthday, I always get out my huggable globe - big, soft world - and hug it and think all kinds of peaceful thoughts out to this wonderful world we live in.

"Now you know what my birthday wishes are. Happy birthday to me."