The Quest

A few years ago I read The Secret. I had several months of great parking spots, which is nothing short of a miracle here on Oahu. Parking is a daily issue and having good luck with it is a BIG deal. The Secret works.

The concepts taught in The Secret rang true to me, but the book seemed over simplified. I wanted more than just good parking spots. I wanted to improve the quality of my life. I wanted to acheive my dreams. I prefer to take the AP class, rather than remedial reading, or maybe I expect life to be hard? Either way, I went on a quest for the details, the science, the meat of the mater. I wanted to know how it worked, why it worked, and just exactly how I should go about making it work in my life. I wanted facts and I wanted homework.

I read several books by the authors quoted in The Secret - Joe Vitale, Christiane Turner, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, Dale Carnegie, Charles Haanel, Benjamin Franklin, etc. These authors led me to others, and related topics, like the fascinating concepts of quantum physics and the nature of time. I learned a lot of cool stuff, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.

Somewhere along the line I ended up on a daily newsletter written by Matt Furey. He is associated with the Psycho-cybernetics foundation, and the work of Dr. Maxwell Maltz. I love most of his stuff, and purchased his DVD about how to get rid of headaches. His particular flavor of this whole concept centers around fitness and internet marketing.

I am pretty interested in the internet marketing, but fitness? Well, slimness has always come naturally to me so I haven't given it a whole lot of thought. If an activity is fun or neadful, I do it. But just walking or running, or anything, for the sake of fitness - BORING~ I think reading those daily emails about how to lose weight and how to get fit might be making me fat. I'd read an email with a tip about what to do to exercise more effectively, etc. and I would think, "Oh crap, I'm not doing that, maybe I should be." Seriously! I never thought it of it before, and I stayed perfectly healthy and slim. I ate and did what I wanted. In the last year I have gained a few pounds, maybe 10 at the most. I know, I know, what am I complaining about, but I don't like it! I want MY body back, the one that I know, that acts the way I am used to, and fits clothes like I am used to. I feel strange in this slightly softer, rounder version of myself. I have thought about buying one of the fitness books Furey is selling.

It's all my brother-in-law's fault that I even know how much I weigh. When he moved back to the mainland about a year and a half ago he left his bathroom scale at our house. I was shipping him boxes a few at a time that he left here. I needed the scale to weigh them. After a few months of it hanging out in the living room, I put it in the bathroom. In all my adult life I had never owned a scale. I never thought about how much I weighed. I started weighing myself often, just cause it was there. Pretty soon it was every day. I'm not going to step on that scale again for at least a week. Maybe I will just ship it to it's rightful owner, he can have the dang thing back.

When I was reading all those books, I fairly devoured them. I would go through each one as quickly as I could, searching for the gems. Most of them had mental exercises you were supposed to go through at the end of each chapter. I was much too impatient for any of that. I remember thinking, "Ya, ya, I know, tell me what's next!". Generally these exercises involve deep breathing and meditation. I discovered that I was not very good at either. So, I skipped through them and on to more information, and then the next book, and the next.

Other than the daily emails, I haven't read anything new on the subject for the last few months. My mind has been processing all that data. Here is what I think:

1. It is really important to know what you want before you go about trying to get it.

2. The human mind is very powerful. Respect that power.

3. Be careful about what messages you send yourself. Look around your life and see what you are telling yourself. (ie the bathroom scale)

4. Knowledge is not enough for true success.

I have determined to slow down and actually DO the exercises in those books I read. I am starting with Charles Haanel's The Master Key System. This is the one that irritated me the most, so it's probably the one I need to do. He suggests you take a week between each chapter to master each exercise before moving on to the next. The first week you are supposed to sit perfectly still in a chair for 15 minutes. You are supposed to do this every day for a week. Simple - but surprisingly difficult for me. Each chapter builds on the previous and now in chapter 3 I am sitting perfectly still for 15 minutes daily with my body completely relaxed and my mind completely relaxed. I have dozed off a few times. Hopefully by the time the week is up I will have this one mastered.

The books I have read are included in the list on the right side of this page. My personal favorites are The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, and The Biography of Benjamin Franklin. Come, join me on The Quest!