I AM – The Movie You MUST See

Usually, I try to write about one or more thoughts that I think of as crystals of human wisdom, that in many cases are not new, but simply my distillation of spirits that have been around for a long time, with a particular emphasis on self-motivation, empowerment, self-actualization, and the general notion that we all have strengths and weaknesses and the weaknesses can be overcome… in some cases by simply focusing on the strengths. In other words, what we need to do to grow into our full and true individual power to change our world profoundly for the good of our community, ourselves, and the planet.

In this blog I’m going to depart from that format and tell you something more immediate (and potentially powerful) for those of you who are feeling the fresh air blowing in your lives from the changes that are afoot in our world. Those of you who feel like you want to make a difference, you can make a difference... but HOW?? … here’s an opportunity for you to light a REAL fire on a broader basis. First, you need to go see the movie “I AM” by Tom Shadyac. Then you need to spread the word!!

Tom is a reasonably well known movie director (Bruce Almighty, The Nutty Professor, etc.) who had an accident that lead to an epiphany, and subsequently to a journey of discovery. The result is a profound and substantive conversation, the start of which is the movie and the continuation of which is YOU…here, and in any other place you can think of – by motivating other to go see the movie, as well as by having the conversation in your own right.

What makes this particularly meaningful right NOW is that the film has been on limited distribution but recently (Last Wednesday) they taped the Oprah Winfrey show! Oprah saw I AM, was deeply moved, and dedicated her last open show to this film. Oprah and Tom talked in depth on air about the film, which she urged her audience to see, telling everyone plainly that this is the conversation we need to be having. The show will air on April 20th, if you’d like to check it out. Now here’s where the news gets exciting – Thanks to all of the positive responses, and with the above-mentioned national attention, the distribution team is officially opening the movie in 50+ more cities!

So, for what this website is all about, for the SHIFT that we all stand for in our own lives in the most positive manifestation possible, a singularly powerful action that you can take is to see this movie and the get others to se it as well. The movie website is http://iamthedoc.com/ and the NEW listing of showings and times (which by the way, Tom usually attends the opening of) is at http://iamthedoc.com/showtimes-date/ If you do NOTHING else this week you will have made a tangible and positive movement toward the SHIFT by seeing this movie. This conversation needs to be UNSTOPPABLE!!

Blessings to you all as we work to empower a better and more uniformly prosperous world.

John Strohl (aka Smokemaster)

It's YOUR Life - Use it Wisely!!

Have you noticed? - you always seem to have something intruding in your life that was unexpected and requires extra energy and effort. This is the way life is. There will never be "enough" time, money, energy, enough... life.... or will there? This is the attitude of INSUFFICIENCY or SCARCITY. I propose to you that your time is LIKE your money, in that you can budget it and manage it or you can just spend it on whatever comes along, run short a lot, and think "There will never be enough!" So... what is the first "wealth building" lesson of ANY money management course? Pay Yourself First!! In other words, take the first ten percent (preferably 10%, less if you absolutely must) of whatever you earn and put it aside. Before you know it you will see it start accumulating into something that you respect...and that increases your respect for yourself at the same time.

That's the way it works with time, too. If you COMMIT a certain amount of your time, meaning you establish in your WRITTEN schedule of your day when and what that time will be spent on (budgeting) and you make sure that "YOUR" time is set aside first (which means both written down AND your resolute, even absolute, mental commitment to THAT time) - pretty soon the fruits of your activities during YOUR time will begin to accumulate into something that you respect... and that increases your sense of self-respect at the same time.

Make no mistake, this will require that you have a specific plan laid out for what you will do with YOUR time, and you must stick to it. Maybe your best time is early in the morning, or maybe, like me, it's late at night. It doesn't seem like much at first, but even after one week you are 7 days further toward your goals than you were before, and you can see it. More importantly, you can feel it.

Remember the "great divide" exists not between those who take perfect action and those who take imperfect action. It exists between those who take action of any kind, and those who take no action at all. It is exactly like the old response about "How do you eat an elephant?" - One bite at a time! The Journey of 1000 Miles? - starts with the first step.

When you write down and manage the resources of your life - time, money, material supplies, etc. - you take the first major steps to eliminate the concept of SCARCITY as the driving factor in your life. You start to be aware of the sufficiency, even abundance, within which you live, and get away from talking about the "lack" of things. It has been an observed fact for quite a while that if you talk to people about budgeting and setting aside "savings", they will repeatedly talk about how they don't have enough of whatever to be able to "afford" to do that. However when it is done, and the resource is simply not available to be expended, all the other functions adjust and everything settles in on the new "norm" of 10% less. With rare exception you CAN get along on ten percent less of whatever needs to be "saved". The argument that "I'll set more aside when I have more." is also fundamentally bogus. Most people, when provided with more resources DO NOT preserve or save more for emergency or dedicated use nor do they start budgeting if they weren't before - the expenditures increase to match the available resources!!

So... the ONLY thing that makes any sense is to sit down and 1) write down what you need to do to achieve your goal 2) break those tasks down into time increments that that are "do-able" 3) write down your weekly schedule with a daily allocation of YOUR time. Pick a time that works for you and then.. MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU!! Just do it!! Start working your way through your list of things to be done... and before you know it you'll be there.